A Visit to Oz
by ishtar411
Summary: If you like the Wizard of Oz, then you will enjoy this set of stories and poems that serve as a prequel to the Oz tales. In this set of tales, Oz is an ancient land transported away to escape an evil wizard. The other stories are tales of different ancient Oz characters and the last tale is a somewhat familiar tale of a curious traveling girl, a mad scientist, and a rabbit hole.


**A Visit to Oz**

 **By D. S. Martinez © 2015**

 **Contents**

 **PART I**

 **The Land of Oz (poem)**

 **The Oracle's Tale**

 **PART II**

 **The Wizard's Apprentice**

 **The Little Wizard**

 **PART III**

 **The Ballad of Dorothy Gale (poem)**

 **Alice in the Land Oz**

 **Note(s)**

 **The stories in this compilation were written by D. S. Martinez (Dai'Quiriya Martinez).**

 **The story Alice in the Land of Oz contains story elements from H.G. Wells'** _ **The Time Machine**_ **, Robert Louis Stevenson's** _ **The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde**_ **, Lewis Carroll's** _ **Alice in Wonderland**_ **, and L. Frank Baum's** _ **The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,**_ **along with newly added elements by D. Martinez.**

 **This compilation of stories is not part of the public domain.**

 **PART 1**

 **The Land of Oz**

The Land of Oz

Lies deep in the mind

Far away Oz

Beyond all time

The imagination does

Gallop away

With munchkins and fairies

At work and at play

The reason and cause

To be left behind

Far away Oz

Yet easy to find

Some search for the door

Night and day

The rich and the poor

But none know the way

I've been to the place

And back again

Over the rainbow

Where it all began.

 **The Oracle's Diary (A Tale of Oz)**

Thousands of years ago in a faraway land known as Uth, an evil scientist named Yakuf caused blight upon the land.

Each experiment that he did depleted the land of vital energy. One time a farmer went outside to find that his crops had died somehow, overnight. The crops were there one day and gone the next. Finally, the people of the kingdom gathered to discuss a way to get rid of the scientist. They found him in his workshop asleep and tied him up. The royal guard put him on a horse and banished him.

Yakuf was actually was glad that he had been banished. The lands beyond Uth were vast and had different laws. Yakuf knew that he could conduct his experiments there without hindrance. The king of Uth had created laws that prohibited the experimentation of the elements, humans and animals. So, Yakuf was happy to take his leave and went out into the mountains. He named his abode Batmos. And from Batmos he created all types of strange things. After a while the people of Uth became afraid to venture too near mountains of Uth.

Once a herder ventured near Batmos to look for a stray goat and a bizarre thing happened. He said that he saw little people, hundreds of them working in a ditch. They all had red hair and purple eyes. He said that they appeared harmless. In fact they were downright jolly looking. He heard his goat calling and he was drawn further into the realm of Batmos. He saw the goat tied to a post. He approached and a monkey with wings flew down upon him. Luckily, a little man dressed all in green came to his rescue.

Throughout the years many more strange things happened. People went missing. The few that returned were incoherent and rambled about seeing a tribe of men called Duendes that turned people into dolls and collected them. They kept all of these dolls in a place beyond the cave that they named Nenetlan, meaning land of the dolls in an ancient lost tongue. Others said that flying monkeys carried them away into the cave, where Yakuf, now a great wizard ruled.

The years passed and the list of missing persons began to grow. The king of Uth who was called Uz-Habazz was fed up. He sent out a call to all the earth's kingdoms. To Sumeria, Egypt, Cathay, the Sindh, and to a faraway distant land called Atalan, he called. He called for seers, mages, conjurers, fairies, witches and the like. Each of them tried to stop Yakuf, but all failed.

Large gates were erected around Uth. A curfew was enforced. No one was allowed outside of the walls of the kingdom passed dark. But the kidnappings went on, a bit less, but they still continued. Then one day, a missive was sent from the land of Atalan. A young boy was found who had been born on the most auspicious day in their calendar. He was said to be a natural born oracle. They said that he was to begin his training right away, and then he would be sent to King Uz-Habazz when he was ready.

More years passed and finally the Oracle was ready. He came to Uth walking and carrying a long staff. He was young and handsome and all of the girls in the kingdom lined up to see him. He came to King Uz-Habazz and bowed. The king told him of the problems that they had since Yakuf had been banished. The Oracle knew all of this but listened carefully. The next day the oracle went out to Batmos to seek out Yakuf.

The wizard Yakuf had the Oracle captured by a group of gnomes and goblins that he had created. They tied up the Oracle and carried him to the wizard. Yakuf saw the Oracle's staff and became curious. He untied the Oracle and had him sit down on a velvet pillow. He knew that the Oracle was trained in the art of seership and was curious to see what his plans were.

The Oracle told him flat out that he was here to save Uth and to find a way to stop the wizard. The wizard Yakuf let out a laugh. Instead of being offended, he offered for the Oracle to become his apprentice. The Oracle refused, and the wizard told him to go away and to tell King Uz-Habazz that he was planning an attack upon the city. He showed the Oracle an image of strange beings that he created to be soldiers. These soldiers were bred to attack and destroy Uth. The Oracle left the cave and went towards Uth. As he was leaving, he remembered the wizards words… _go away_.

The Oracle returned and told King Uz-Habazz what he had experienced. The king sighed and thought that all was lost. But the Oracle had a plan. He knew that the wizard was going to attack on the night of the dark moon. The dark moon was sacred to Arawa the arch-fairy of Arianrhod. He knew that if he cast the right stones and burned the proper incense that he could persuade Arawa to help them to defeat Yakuf. But, he had to convince the king and the people of Uth to agree with him.

One night while the Oracle was asleep, he was awoken by a noise. He awoke with a start. He saw a group of people or something like people standing before him. A little lady named Nana the Munchkin stepped forward. She told the Oracle that the beings of Batmos knew what he was planning and they wanted to help. They would help, if he would release them from the wizard. The munchkins, flying monkeys, elves, duendes, Twa, fauns and many others had either been created by the wizard or captured by him from various lands. He made them do all types of labor and evil deeds. Many of them were kind hearted and did not want to do his bidding, but had no choice.

They told the Oracle that the wizards power lie in a large green crystal that stood in the center of his laboratory. They knew if they cracked it, that Yakuf's power would weaken. The oracle agreed to free them, if they would destroy the crystal at the appointed time. Their deal was sealed and the little people went away.

The following morning, the Oracle went to the king and told him his plans and about the little people helping them out. The king agreed, because he didn't know what else to do. He was at his wit's end. He knew he had a duty as king to make sure that his people were safe. And the oracle and the rest of the kingdom prepared.

The night of the dark moon came. The stones were cast. The incense were burnt…and the Oracle asked the arch-fairy Arawa to take them away from the evil wizard Yakuf. As the Oracle made his plea, one of the little people snuck into Yakuf's laboratory and cracked the crystal with a workman's hammer. The stone let out a great light and a loud noise. All who was near covered their ears and eyes.

Back in Uth, the light of Arawa shown brightly upon Uth. For a moment everything went black and then back to light. The oracle opened his eyes and knew that Uth was safe. The evil wizard would never harm them again.

The sun was bright in the sky and every flower seemed sweeter. The grass appeared greener. The landscape around the kingdom of Uth appeared different from before. There were no mountains or caves near. Batmos was nowhere to be seen. The work of the little people and Arawa had transported Uth to somewhere far, just like the Oracle had asked for. The land of Uth had moved to some other world or some other time…or place.

That was over 300 years ago. The name of the land of Uth and that of King Uz-Habazz was lost and became corrupted into the new name, Oz. The little people who destroyed the green crystal were transported here with us, along with many other magical and odd beings that the wizard captured or created. I was that Oracle. And so goes the history of the Land of Oz.

 **PART 2**

 **The Wizard's Apprentice**

Long ago in the Kingdom of Oz, an evil wizard caused blight upon the land. In his experiments with various animating solutions and electricity, he had created immense numbers of cabbits, trolls and flying monkeys, till he had become the prime nuisance in all of the lands near and far. He continued to study alchemy and other dark arts. He performed a variety of the spells and experiments. The wizard was banished to the lands beyond Oz.

A generation passed and the wizard was forgotten. Everyone was always so busy restoring the land and fortifying the kingdom, that no one bothered to re-tell the story of the wizard and his destructive ways. Although, the kingdom forgot the wizard, he did not forget about them. The wizard had a plan.

Late one dark night on the dissecting-table in his laboratory he beheld the accomplishments of his toils…It was gigantic. By the light of powerful oil lamps, the specimen was odd and spectral looking. Now, with the eyes closed, it looked more asleep than dead; the wizard injected him and shocked him with the electrical pulse. Then he covered his experiment and waited for the right time.

"Well, what is the report? What have those fools been up to lately?" asked an old man in purple and green robes. A young man in a colorful cloak was on his knees prostrating himself before the old man. The old man in the purple and green robes made a gesture for the younger man to get up.

"I saw them; they plan on consulting some kind of an oracle. They are doing very well in fact. No one would ever know that just a generation or two ago, the land was almost completely and utterly damaged."

"Did anyone notice you?"

"No. I changed into a less conspicuous tan costume. I moved about them unnoticed, as if I were just another villager."

The old man had a wicked face and an even wickeder smile. He sat at a large wooden desk and said, "I want you to go into the royal city by night and go into their fields. There is something waiting there for you. Play a little tune, while you walk by the light of the waxing moon. The moon will increase the hypnotic power of your flute. I want you to play until you see a sign and then return here and tell me what took place. Hurry now…I have enchanted your flute and the time grows near. Go and play."

The young man in the colorful cloak grabbed his flute and set out toward the fields of Oz. He sat down in the middle of a field and wondered what the wizard meant when he said that something was waiting for him. He looked around, but did not see a thing. The waxing moon was high in the dark sky. He followed his master's orders and began to play his flute. He piped as hard as he could. Suddenly, from some bushes nearby he saw what the wizard had meant.

Their outlines were human, semi-human, fractionally human, and not human at all-the horde was grotesquely heterogeneous. There were ogres, trolls, bogeys, and gremlins of all shapes, sizes, and colors. About a hundred of them headed out of the fields and toward the royal city.

The beast entered the city and seemed to be bent on destruction. They were removing the stones quietly, one by one, from the centuried wall. The piper in the colorful cloak was a bit shocked at what he saw. Then the piper blew his pipe and the fiends froze in their place. He remembered that the wizard said that his pipe had been especially enchanted. His playing stooped the fiends and they returned to the wizard's lair.

The wizard watched from a magical spy scope that he had created. He was elated by the destruction that his creations had caused. The piper returned to his master to await further instructions. He waited until the old man spoke.

"Well our plan is going well my pipe playing apprentice. I want you to see what our work has all been for. Those bogey-men that I showed you…well I have something grander to add to our plan. Behold! My greatest creation! The arch-bogey of them all! He lives!"

It was passed midnight; the rain pattered dismally against the laboratory windows, and apprentice's candle was nearly burning out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, he saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and then convulsed.

The apprentice could not contain his emotions at the being that he beheld. His limbs were in fine proportion, and had selected features that were somewhat beautiful. The being's greenish skin barely covered the knots of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these features only formed a more horrid contrast with his yellow eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the sockets in which they were set, he also had a shriveled complexion and straight black lips.

The wizard smiled at his accomplishment. But the apprentice was a bit taken aback. He knew that when he signed on for the position, that he would learn the strange, hidden arts. But now he was unsure if he wanted to go through with it all. Besides, the people of Oz had never done anything to him. He was just a drifter from Ur.

The wizard spoke, "Now they will need a way to repair the main wall of the kingdom. That's where you come in, under the guise of a simple flute playing workman. When they begin to repair the wall, you will wait until the witching hour and open the gates to the kingdom and let our friends run free."

They will do anything to get rid of those pesky bogey-men. I want you to get them at their most desperate point and then you will proceed with our plan. Make ready and put on your most colorful cloak. The cloak is magical and it will enhance the hypnotic power of your flute threefold.

The apprentice went out once again and traveled into Oz. He went to the royal meeting hall. The king, prime minister, and the people were gathered. One old woman had related the tale of the evil wizard to the younger folks. Then others began to speak up and the prime minister came forward with a scroll. He said, "The old woman is right. The wizard, or mad scientist, or whatever he is, must be still alive and taking revenge on the kingdom. I have many stories of various missing persons right here. In fact, I also have some very old accounts of people who strayed too far from Oz and encountered some odd events."

The apprentice entered the hall and all eyes were on him. The crowd looked at his strange cloak and wondered where he had come from. "Hail, there good citizens of royal city of Oz. I am a wandering stone-mason and I may be able to help you… for a price of course. I am looking for some paid work and I hear that you are hiring good strong men to repair the wall."

"Indeed we are young man. So, you say that you are a mason?"

"Yes, I am. In fact I am from the city of Ur. And as you well know, we are some of the greatest builders. We helped to build the great Tower of Balbeki. And that illustrious building is still stranding to this day."

The prime minister looked to the king, who nodded his approval. The prime minister eyed the young man and then said, "Well fine indeed. You will report to the east side of the wall tomorrow at the break of dawn. At the end of the day, after your work, you will be paid in coin and in food. You will find room to bed down in the royal stables with the other workers."

The apprentice bowed and took his leave. He couldn't wait till tomorrow night in order to let the bogeymen and their fiendish leader into the city walls. He found a place in the stable to sleep. But, instead of sleeping he wandered the area of the eastern wall. He took out a small crystal from inside of his cloak. The crystal was a means of communication to the wizard. He rubbed the crystal and an image of the wizard appeared. He spoke into the crystal and then returned it to its hiding place.

The next day work on the wall commenced. The apprentice did his work as well, if not better, than most of the workmen. Later that day, the workmen were fed and paid. Now that they repairs were complete, all of the workmen went home, except the apprentice. He hid out and hung around the royal city until the witching hour approached.

When the hour was at hand, the apprentice took out his magical pipe and began to play it. As he played, his music put the kingdom's inhabitants in a deep sleep. He played on and on.

Beyond the royal city, the bogey-men heard the tune. It was as if they being controlled by it. The wizard watched and jumped up and down with glee. He uncovered the fiend and it began to rise. Its eyes were glassy and glowing. It stood up and took its place as the leader of the bogey-men.

The fiend and his troops filed out of the laboratory toward Oz. Looming hideously against the spectral moon was the wicked fiend — a glassy-eyed, greenish apparition covered with bits of mold, leaves, and vines, foul with the stench of the laboratory, and holding a white, crystal object shaped like a ball. He was a menacing leader who talked and commanded without moving his lips and whose voice seemed almost ventriloquy connected to the crystal ball that he carried.

The bogey-men reached Oz, where they were let into its gates by the wizard's apprentice. The fiends wreaked havoc upon the town. They ran into houses while the inhabitants slept and roused them from their sleep. They jumped onto roof tops and made loud howling noises. The snatched people and threw them over their shoulders and began to head for the wizard's lair.

The wizard watched through his spy glass. He laughed in an evil cackle, clapped his hands, and danced around his laboratory. He waited for his fiends to return. As he waited, he felt that something had gone awry, but he didn't know what.

The apprentice watched the bogey-men at their fiendish task. Then, something inside of him clicked. He knew that he couldn't continue on this way. He had to find a way to stop the wizard. He would find a way help out the Kingdom of Oz, but until then he had to play along.

The apprentice and the bogey-men departed. He led them far, far away up a mountain to the wizard's magical lair. The apprentice stopped in front of a solid rock wall. He played three notes on his flute and the wall opened. He played again and the fiends entered. After the last fiend entered, the wall sealed up as if it had never been opened.

The wizard had the fiends to take the captives to a dungeon beneath his laboratory. He then looked to his apprentice and said, "Fine work. Did anything go wrong? I sensed something strange, but could not place it."

"No, nothing," said the apprentice.

"Good. Now we can go through with the rest of our plans. I shall turn the populace of Oz into bogey-men and trolls. I will rule Oz and then eventually I will take control of the lands beyond Oz's borders. We will be unstoppable!"

The apprentice now knew for sure that he had to stop the wizard. So, he hatched out his own plan. He would have to find a way to warn the people of Oz and also the surrounding kingdoms, including his hometown of Ur. He would consult the old seer of Ur.

The apprentice snuck out of the wizard's laboratory one sunny day. He knew that the wizard was busy perfecting a new spell. So, he went and sought out the seer of Ur. He told the old man about the wizard's plan. The old man gave him the solution and then pointed him in the proper direction.

The apprentice found exactly what he was looking for. In a small village in Ur, there was a young man who had been born with special powers. He was an oracle. The apprentice approached the oracle's family and told them the tale. They consented to allow the oracle to accompany the wizard's apprentice.

The oracle and the apprentice headed toward Oz. While they walked, the oracle asked the apprentice a question, "So, if you are apprentice to the wizard, why do you want to help Oz?"

"Because, I realize that the wizard has plans to turn everyone into a troll or some sort of fiend. He even plans to destroy the kingdom of Ur, and that's where my family resides. If he destroys Ur, he will be unstoppable. I cannot sit by and allow this to go any further. Plus I am tired of living a lonely life with a creepy wizard. That's why I have had a change of heart."

The apprentice took the oracle to Oz and then departed. When he returned to the wizard's lair, he found that the wizard was still engaged in his experiments and did not even notice that he was gone. The apprentice went on with his normal duties. Yet, the entire time his nerves were on edge.

Time passed and the wizard had kidnapped more victims from Oz. Finally, the time had come. On the night of the dark moon, the wizard was making ready for his ultimate plan. He was ready to make a final attack on Oz and then on to the surrounding kingdoms. He made ready, but something stopped him.

A bright visage appeared in front of the wizard. It was the arch-fairy Arawa. The wizard tried to reach for one of his crystals but could not reach it. Arawa spread out her arms and a light engulfed the room

"Arawa! To what do I owe this visit?"

"I am here at request of the good. I am here to prevent you from destroying Oz. A call was sent out and I am answering it."

As Arawa said this, the apprentice stepped forward. He bowed before Arawa and then put his head down. The wizard realized that he had been betrayed. The wizard looked at his apprentice in anger and began stomping up and down upon the ground and yelled, "You idiot. I have taken on a fool for an apprentice… You fool, you fool, you fool! Oh you have ruined everything! I am ruined!" The wizard was so angry that he burst into a ball of fire and disappeared.

 **The End**

 **Duende:The Little Wizard**

One night while on an expedition into the uncharted forests of Oz, a group of soldiers decided to make camp for the night. As they were sitting around eating, they saw shadows near an outcrop of rocks by a cave. Each time that someone would go and investigate, they would find nothing. One of the Halfkin guides told them that they were being watched by the "little wizards". They laughed at him and told him that it was just a silly native superstition.

The following morning one of the soldiers named Ferrez Briganis Uz-Carloman set out to investigate a nearby cave. He took a small group of men with him. He entered the cave and heard a rustling noise. He saw something move and he yelled "Stop or I will fill you with arrows till you look like a porcupine." Suddenly what seemed like an animal jumped at him and then scurried away. One of the other men pointed his bow at the thing and let loose an arrow. They were startled when they heard a strange human like shriek and then a moaning noise. Ferrez lit a torch and they walked in further. They found a little man lying on the ground bleeding. He had been grazed by an arrow.

They realized that they had shot a man and not an animal. So, they carried the little man out of the cave. They tried to communicate with him in the old Oz dialect at first, but then they called their native translator. The translator was a Halfkin named Mezzizo. When Mezzizo saw the little man he began to shake his head and speak rapidly in his own tongue. He told the soldiers of Oz, that it was best to leave the man where they had found him and he quickly retreated to the background. So, the group took the little man with them back to the newly built eatate of Ferrez's uncle Lord Briganis of Oz. He figured that his cousin Helen and his aunt Aethtilda could use the odd little man as a servant of some type or at least a companion.

The little man survived his wounds and healed. No one knew his true name so they called him Mercurio. Mercurio became the women's companion and servant. He didn't talk much. He went about the estate doing his little chores and running errands for the ladies of the house. The Halfkin, Munchkin and elven workers of the estate stayed away from him as much as they could. One Halfkin servant even told Ferrez that the little man was trouble. They said that it would be best to send him back to the cave where they had found him. Juan brushed it off as some type of an old native tribal animosity or something.

One day, a female servant approached him and said, "Sir, he is a Duende...a wizard…he should be sent away." This made Ferrez became curious and suspicious of the other servant's treatment of little Mercurio and he demanded that they tell him more. One servant, a Halfkin named Guffin told Ferrez that men like Mercurio were not to be toyed with, and that they should not trust his kind. He said, "They will come. The little ones will come for their kind and we will all pay for keeping him here." Ferrez was confused; he thought that Guffin was talking about the man's family or some type of an elven tribe or something.

One night after Lord Briganis had a thrown a grand festival and ball, the servants were allowed to take the left overs. Guffin decided to drink a jug of enchanted fairy brew. He drank the entire bottle. He then set out to look for Mercurio. He found him carving what looked like a doll from a piece of wood. He pointed his finger and said, "You...you duende! I know your kind. Your tricks... You came here to destroy and to steal what's left." For the first time Mercurio decided that he would speak out. He looked at Guffin with an almost wicked expression and said, "They are the destroyers…These so called Men of Oz… and you are a fool and a traitor for going along with it all! You should join us and enslave the human ones. All of the enchanted beings will unite and take power in Oz. You will see…traitor!"

By this time Guffin was intoxicated and angry. He threw the jug at Mercurio and attacked him. Mercurio held up the doll that he was carving and Guffin fell to his knees in fear. The carved wooden doll had Guffin's face. Mercurio walked away while Guffin lay on the floor stiff as a corpse. Mercurio went to his little room and pulled out a drum and began to beat it. Suddenly, from out of nowhere his room was filled with strange little men who wore pointed purple hats covered with star designs. They looked identical to him. They filed out of Mercurio's room and into the main part of the hacienda. The native servants went wild and fled in terror when they saw them. Ferrez heard the ruckus and went to see what was wrong. He grabbed at an elf maid, who was running in terror and she yelled out, "Duendes… the little wizards…sorcerers…in the house!"

The little men ran through the house waving strangely carved wooden wands led by Mercurio. They ran around chanting in a strange tongue, knocking over vases and furniture. Then suddenly everything was quiet. It seemed as if the household had frozen in place or something. The duendes picked through what was left of the house. They packed their bags full of valuables and then left.

The next day some soldiers came to the estate due to reports from a hysterical servant. The house had been destroyed. They looked around for the inhabitants. One soldier walked into a bedroom and saw something strange. He saw a bunch of wooden dolls lined up against a wall. One of the dolls was wearing a miniature version of Ferrez's uniform and the face bore an uncanny resemblance to him. The real Ferrez and the rest of the family were never found. The dolls were placed in the garden of the estate. Every so often in Oz and the surrounding areas, someone would go missing and in their place a doll was always left behind. These dolls were also placed in the old estate garden and it became known as The Garden of Dolls.

The End

 **PART 3**

 **The Ballad of Dorothy Gale**

It all started that one dreary day

Wind whispering and creeping

A mind of its own…Having its own way

I heard a voice soft and low

Calling to me

As the wind did blow

I followed outdoors

And what did I see?

A light and a force

Beckoning to me

But then it changed to darkest green

Something wicked and something mean

When the storm approached, the image grew small

I retreated to the house

To get away from it all

The house shook and shook

With such a great force

Pulled of its base

Onto a new course

I peeped outside

I just couldn't believe

Up into the air at the highest speed

Over a rainbow and into the stars

A pool of blue

Beyond great Mars

The pace now slow, just like a balloon

The ebb and the flow

Does make me swoon

Beyond my window and on a great broom

Something wicked and something mean

I shook it off, that evil visage

Green and witchy

A horrible mirage

Falling now, quick as lightning

A puff of green smoke

A scream so frightening

Away it went and I was the cause

This is how I came to the Land of Oz.

 **Alice in the Land Oz**

 **(Adapted from Alice in Wonderland , The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Time Machine, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and retold by D. Martinez with original and newly added elements)**

 **Prologue:**

 **A Set of Curious Doctors and a Rabbit Hole**

Alice was bored listening to her sister's monotone reading voice. She got up and decided to go for a walk. As she was walking she came upon a thick garden that hid a house. She knew that the house belonged to the odd little man who was called Dr. Travelier. Alice always the curious one, walked up to the house and heard a strange grinding noise. She walked around back and looked through a little window and saw a weird looking large gold and brass looking chair. The "chair" reminded her of a giant watch. It had large gears, cogs, and workings like the inside of her great-uncle's pocket watch. Dr. Travelier saw her and beckoned for her to enter.

"Oh, hello there. I see that you have found your way into my secret garden here."

"Hello, my name is Alice. I live just up the road. What is that thing that you are working on?"

"This… well it's a long story, but in short… it's a travelling machine. A time travelling machine to be precise," said Dr. Travelier

Alice looked at Dr. Travelier in the most curious manner and said, "A time machine. You mean that you can travel to different times in this contraption?"

"Not just to different times, but to different places, worlds, and dimensions…"

"Impossible!" said Alice.

"Oh quite possible. In fact I have just returned from the distant future. Oh yes indeed…"

"Well, if that is true…I would go and visit farthest India or even go and meet Julius Caesar before the Ides of March come."

Dr. Travelier gave Alice a big smile and said, "Listen to me and believe it or not"

Dr. Travelier began, "I travelled the world and worlds for so very long. The velocity of the machine was like a heavenly body-a comet. I saw a variety of change and creatures old and new. I saw the world in its early darkness and then the light of change. For a long time I moved in and out of time, losing sense of place. The blinking succession of the days and night, the sun became red and then golden again, the sky burnt black and then blue again.

Then one day I must have hit the right point and the old walls of this house and laboratory came round me. Very gently, now, I slowed the mechanism down. I was back to where it had all began. I saw one little thing that seemed odd to me. I think I have told you that when I set out, before my velocity became very high, travelling, as it seemed to me, like a comet. But now every motion appeared to be the exact inversion of the previous ones. I don't know why. Some things appeared in opposite. History seemed backwards, reality and dreams were unknown.

"Then, as I said, that I stopped the machine, and here I was again the good old familiar laboratory, everything just as I had left them. I got off the machine very nervously, and sat down upon my work-bench. For almost half an hour I trembled violently. I was almost in tears. Then I gained composure. Around me was my old workshop again, exactly as it had been. I might have slept there, and the whole thing may have been a dream."

He looked at Alice and saw that she was astounded and speechless. "No. Of course, I cannot expect you to believe it. Take it as a lie, a prophecy or future prediction. Maybe even wishful thinking. Say I dreamed it all up in the workshop. Consider I have been speculating upon the future destinies of our race and that I have hatched up this fictional tale of travel. Made it all up… Just daydreaming…Treat my assertion of its truth as a way to enhance interest in my tale. And if it is just a story, what do you think of it?"

"What a pity it is that you're not a writer of stories!" said Alice.

"You don't believe it?"

"Well…"

"I thought not. To tell you the truth…I hardly believe it myself…. And yet…I don't know…or I do know….Who will ever know."

His eye looked away upon some withered brightly colored flowers upon the little table. Alice rose, came to the lamp, and examined the flowers. "These are curiously odd," she said. She leant forward to see, holding out her hand for a specimen.

"It's a curious thing," said the Alice; "but I certainly don't know the natural order of these flowers. They are polka-dotted. May I have them?" The Time Traveller hesitated. Then suddenly: "Certainly not."

"Where did you really get them?" asked Alice.

The Time Traveller put his hand to his head. He spoke like one who was trying to keep hold of an idea that eluded him. "They were put into my pocket by a lady named Weena. Or was it Glenda? You know…when I travelled into Time."

"This room and you and the atmosphere of every day is too much for my memory. Did I ever make a Time Machine, or a model of a Time Machine? Or this all only a dream? Are you really here? They say life is a dream, a precious poor dream at times—but I can't stand another that won't fit. It's madness. And where did the dream come from?

"Where did you really get them?" said Alice.

"Another world" replied Dr. Travelier with a smile.

"Well, if that's the case…I must see for myself" said Alice. Alice ran to the time machine and jumped into its seat. Dr. Travelier yelled, "Wait…you don't know how to work the control settings device…wait!" Alice yanked control and the machine spun around. Everything went dark and then there were pictures and images all around Alice. Alice regretted not listening to Dr. Travelier. She thought that he was just making it all up. Now she knew that it was true.

Alice was terrified. She caught her breath and decided that the best thing to do was to grab onto the lever and pull it back. Maybe it would take her back to Dr. Travelier's laboratory. As she pulled on the lever, more images came into view. She found herself outside instead of inside of the house or laboratory. The garden and house looked different. She found that she wasn't in the garden of Dr. Travelier at all.

Alice went toward the house and called out, "Hello!"

No one answered and so Alice walked to the side of the house hoping that she would spot a servant or the owner. She walked in through an open door and saw a gentleman sitting at a desk shuffling through some papers. She cleared her throat and said, "Hello. Excuse me…I'm lost."

The gentleman looked up from his papers and nodded his head in acknowledgement. He went on to ignore Alice and so she said once again, "Hello. I say that I am lost. Can you help me, please?"

"Lost you say…aren't we all lost?"

"Uh...I don't understand…"

The gentleman arose from his desk and said, "Hello. I am Dr. Henry Jekyll and this is my home and laboratory."

"Oh no," thought Alice, "another doctor."

"Come in…maybe I can help you…or we can help each other. I have been conducting some experiments here and may need some assistance. If it works out…I may be able to help you to get home."

"Dr. Jekyll…you said? Jekyll…what a curious name….it sounds so familiar, but I just can't remember where I have heard it before."

Dr. Jekyll looked at Alice and gave an almost wicked sneer of a smile. He then said, "Let me acquaint you with my work. But before I begin you must have some tea. You look parched."

He led Alice to a soft cushioned bench and then gave her a cup of tea. Alice sat down and took a sip of tea. She noticed that it tasted overly sweet. As Alice drank the tea she noticed some very curious objects in the room, such as green liquid in jars and animals in cages. The strangest thing that she saw was a large white rabbit wearing a suit and carrying a pocket watch. He sat in a cage and as Alice looked at him he gave her a wink. Alice was shocked and then fear overcame her. She kept wondering where she had heard the doctor's name before.

Dr. Jekyll sat on a chair across from Alice and began, "You see….my experiments delve into the mysteries of personality and reality. And it chanced that the direction of my scientific studies, which led wholly towards the mystic and the transcendental, and shed a strong light on this consciousness of the continuous war among my own selves. How we, no, I engage daily with both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual. The good and the bad.

It is the great curse of mankind that these opposite gears are yet bound together- in the suffering womb of life and consciousness, these polar twins should be continuously struggling. How, then were they dissociated? Why are they separate, why are they different…and how?"

In knew that there was a way to either join or separate the two. I studied all of the philosophies. I studied psychology, biology, chemistry and medicine, until I was satisfied that I could accomplish my goals through investigation and experimentation. I would be my own subject.

"Of course at first I hesitated long before I put this theory to the test of practice. I knew well that I may risk my own death; for any drug that so potently controlled and shook the very fortress of identity, might, cause an overdose. But the temptation of a discovery so singular and profound at last overcame my fears. I had long since prepared my tincture; I purchased at once, from a firm of wholesale chemists, a large quantity of two particular elements and a salt which I knew, from my previous experiments, to be the last ingredient required; and late one accursed night, I mixed and compounded the elements, watched them boil and smoke together in the glass. I allowed it to cool and then I extracted the solution. And with a strong burst of courage, I drank off the potion."

"Then the most harsh pangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, my skull splitting and rejoining, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be explained at the hour of birth or death. Then these agonies began swiftly to subside, and I came to myself as if out of a great sickness. I felt renewed, like I had some great energy. There was something strange in my sensations, I felt strong, stronger than I had ever felt. I felt younger, lighter, and happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness and unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul. I also felt more wicked, tenfold more wicked, as if I were chained to original evil. I stretched out my hands and saw that they had grown and changed to a less refined look.

There was no mirror in my room to look upon myself. The night however, was far gone into the morning and I determined, flushed as I was with hope and triumph, to venture in my new shape as far as to my bedroom. I left the laboratory and I stole through the corridors, as if a thief or stranger in my own house. When I came to my room, I peered into my looking glass and for the first time, I beheld the appearance of Mr. Hyde."

Alice now remembered the name. "Hyde!" she yelled out. "That's where I remember the name from. The newspapers mentioned that name a few years ago. He was some fiendish brute that terrorized the streets of London."

Dr. Jekyll laughed and said, "Oh…so you have heard of my work? Good then you won't mind if I introduce you to my friend and then we can discuss how you can help me."

Dr. Jekyll took out a syringe and gave himself a shot. Alice got up to run, but before she could strong beefy hand grabbed her. When Alice turned, she saw that it was the infamous Mr. Hyde who had her now. She tried to twist away, but his grip was too tight. He laughed at her and she saw how apelike Mr. Hyde was. He was large with bulging muscles and a wide flat head. He picked her up as she screamed for help.

"Don't move," he growled.

Mr. Hyde picked up a syringe from a nearby table and was walking toward Alice. He said, "I need to see how this works on those of the weaker persuasion, such as you. I have never experimented on a female and now I have the chance. He grabbed Alice's arm, but was distracted by the white rabbit who yelled, "Stop!"

Alice leaped up from the chair and ran around the laboratory. Mr. Hyde gave chase and smashed test tubes and other equipment as he went. The rabbit's cage was smashed and the rabbit escaped. He called out to Alice and said, "Follow me!"

Alice followed the rabbit out doors as he ran toward a large hole. He went down the hole and Alice went in after him. All she could hear was Mr. Hyde yelling, "Come back you curious girl! Come back I say! Where are you!?"

She never once considered how in the world she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

Presently she began again. "I wonder if I shall fall right _through_ the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward….!

She continued to fall until she fell with a hard thump. She was inside a small room. The rabbit was nowhere to be seen. There was a little glass-like table in the room. The table had a decorative black wrought iron chair near it. Alice got up, rubbed hear bottom and then sat down. She had to think. Where was she? Would the wicked doctor follow her? She noticed that there were two little bottles and a small hard cake that smelled like soap sitting on a silver tray. The bottles said, "Drink Me" and the soapy cake read, "Eat Me". She was rather hungry, so she bit into the cake.

Alice felt an odd sensation, as she were opening up and stretching like a telescope. Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door. Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry. The tears made little pools everywhere.

Alice cried on and then thought about drinking from one of the little bottles. She hoped that it would make her normal again. She drank from the bottle closest to her and felt another weird feeling like a deflating balloon. She now shrank down so much that her tears appeared to be a little lake and a pool.

"I wish I hadn't cried so much!" said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. "I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That _will_ be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day."

Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like she had.

She wondered if the curious mouse could speak like the rabbit was able to. So she said, "O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!" But the Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went. Alice swam after it and noticed that there were other animals in the pool. It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck, A Gryphon, a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice saw a light up ahead and swam farther out. The animals began to follow her, and the whole party swam to the shore.

Suddenly from the far north Alice heard a low wail of the wind. The curious creatures ran away and left Alice standing curiously upon the banks of the shore. Alice saw that there was a little cottage nearby and ran into it for shelter.

 **Chapter I**

 **The Great Storm: The Windy Road to Oz**

When she was halfway across the room there came a great shriek from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor.

Then a strange thing happened. The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Alice felt as if she were going up in a balloon.

The north and south winds met where the cottage stood, and made it the exact center of the cyclone. In the middle of a cyclone the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the little house raised it up higher and higher, until it was at the very top of the cyclone; and there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.

It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Alice found she was riding quite easily. After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.

Hour after hour passed away, and slowly Alice got over her fright; but she felt quite lonely, and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf. At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house began to steadily float and then sway again; but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring. At last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed, and lay down upon it.

In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Alice soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep. Alice lay there in a dream state. She felt herself grow tall and then small. She felt her head spin and saw a whirl of colors around her. She wished that she had never followed the strange rabbit down the hole.

 **Chapter II**

 **The Council with the Munchkins**

She was awakened by a shock, so severe that if Alice had not been lying on the soft bed she might have been hurt. The jolt was so powerful, that she had to her catch her breath. Alice sat up and noticed that the house was no longer swaying; nor was it dark, for a bright beam of light came in through the window, flooding the entire room. She sprang from the bed and ran toward the door.

Alice gave a cry of amazement and looked about her, her eyes growing bigger and bigger at the wonderful sights she saw. Everything outside was colorful. Not regular colors but saturated purples, and blues. And the smell of the flowers was sweeter than honey.

The cyclone had set the house down very gently-for a cyclone-in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty. There were lovely patches of greensward all about, with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits. Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes.

While she stood looking eagerly at the strange and beautiful sights, she noticed coming toward her a group of the queerest people she had ever seen. They were not as big as an adult but neither were they very small. Three were men and one a woman, and all were oddly dressed. They wore round hats that rose to a small point a foot above their heads, with little bells around the brims that tinkled sweetly as they moved. The hats of the men were blue; the little woman's hat was white, and she wore a white gown that hung in pleats from her shoulders. Over it were sprinkled little stars that glistened in the sun like diamonds. The men were dressed in blue, of the same shade as their hats, and wore well-polished boots with a deep roll of blue at the tops. The men, Alice thought, were about as old as her great uncle Henry, for two of them had beards. But the little woman was doubtless much older. Her face was covered with wrinkles, her hair was nearly white, and she walked rather stiffly.

When these people drew near the house where Alice was standing in the doorway, they paused and whispered among themselves, as if afraid to come farther. But the little old woman walked up to Alice, made a low bow and said, in a sweet voice:

"You are welcome, most noble Sorceress, to the land of the Munchkins. We are so grateful to you for having killed the Wicked Witch of the East, and for setting our people free from bondage."

Alice listened to this speech with wonder. What could the little woman possibly mean by calling her a sorceress, and saying she had killed the Wicked Witch of the East? Alice was an innocent, harmless girl, who had been carried by a cyclone many miles from home or wherever she had been; and she had never killed anything in all her life.

But the little woman evidently expected her to answer; so Alice said, with hesitation, "You are very kind, but there must be some mistake. I have not killed anything."

"Your house did, anyway," replied the little old woman, with a laugh, "and that is the same thing. See!" she continued, pointing to the corner of the house. "There are her two feet, still sticking out from under a block of wood."

Alice looked, and gave a little cry of fright. There, indeed, just under the corner of the great beam the house rested on, two feet were sticking out, shod in silver shoes with pointed toes.

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Alice, clasping her hands together in dismay. "The house must have fallen on her. Whatever shall I do?"

"There is nothing to be done," said the little woman calmly.

"But who was she?" asked Alice.

"She was Hekuba, the Wicked Witch of the East, as I said," answered the little woman. "She has held all the Munchkins in bondage for many years, making them slave for her night and day. Now they are all set free, and are grateful to you for the favor."

"Who are the Munchkins?" inquired Alice.

"They are the people who live in this land of the East where the Wicked Witch ruled."

"Are you a Munchkin?" asked Alice.

"No, but I am their friend, although I live in the land of the North. When they saw the Witch of the East was dead the Munchkins sent a swift messenger to me, and I came at once. I am Helene, the Witch of the North."

"Oh, gracious!" cried Alice. "Are you a real witch?"

"Yes, indeed," answered the little woman. "But I am a good witch, and the people love me. I am not as powerful as the Wicked Witch was who ruled here, or I should have set the people free myself."

"But I thought all witches were wicked," said Alice, who was half frightened at facing a real witch. "Oh, no, that is a great mistake. There were only three witches and one evil fairy in all the Land of Oz, and two of them, those who live in the North and the South, are good witches. I know this is true, for I am one of them myself, and cannot be mistaken. The one who dwelt in the East indeed was a wicked witch; but now that you have killed her, and now there is but one great evil in all the Land of Oz-the Red Queen of the West."

"But my aunt told me that fairies were not real and that witches died centuries ago."

Helene thought about Alice's statement. Then she asked, 'Where are you from? Is it a civilized country?"

"I am from Britain and yes it is a very civilized country."

"Then that accounts for it. In the civilized countries I believe there are no witches left, nor wizards, nor sorceresses, nor magicians, nor fairies. But, you see, the Land of Oz has never been civilized, for we are cut off from all the rest of the world. Therefore we still have witches, wizards, and other things amongst us."

"Who are the wizards?" asked Alice.

"Well there used to be a few…in the remote past. But, today, Oz himself is the Great Wizard," answered the Witch, sinking her voice to a whisper. "He is more powerful than all the rest of us together. He lives far yon in the great City of Emeralds."

Curious Alice was going to ask another question, but just then the Munchkins, who had been standing silently by, began jumping up and down frantically and then gave a loud shout. He waved his hands about and pointed to the corner of the house where the Wicked Witch had been lying.

"What is it?" asked the little old woman, and looked, and began to laugh. The feet of the dead Witch had begun to shrivel up and then disappeared into dust entirely. And nothing was left of her, but the silver shoes.

"She was so ancient," explained the Witch of the North, "that she dried up quickly in the sun. Oh well, that is the end of her. But the silver shoes are yours, and you shall have them to wear." She reached down and picked up the shoes, and after shaking the dust out of them handed them to Alice.

"The Witch of the East was proud of those silver shoes," said one of the Munchkins, "and there is some sort of a charm connected with them; yet we never knew what it was."

Alice carried the shoes into the cottage and placed them on the table. Then she came out again to the Munchkins and said:

"I am anxious to get back to my own country. Can you help me find my way?"

The Munchkins and the Witch first looked at one another, and then at Alice, and then shook their heads.

"At the East, not far from here," said one, "there is a great thick Garden of Dreams, and none could live to cross it."

"It is the same at the South," said another, "for I have been there and seen it. The South is the country of the wicked wee folk, the Saxons and Illusions live."

"I am told," said the third man, "that it is the same at the West. And that country, where the wicked fairies and an old crone live, is ruled by the wicked Red Queen of the Fairies, who would make you her slave if you passed her way."

"The North is my home," said the old lady, "and at its edge is the same great garden that surrounds this Land of Oz. I'm afraid, my dear, you will have to live with us."

Alice began to sob at this, for she felt lonely among all these strange people. She knew that it was actually her own fault for being so curious. She should have never followed that rabbit. Her tears seemed to grieve the kind-hearted Munchkins, for they immediately took out their handkerchiefs and began to weep also. As for the little old woman, she took off her cap and balanced the point on the end of her nose, while she counted "One, two, three" in a solemn voice. At once the cap changed to a slate, on which was written in big, white chalk marks:

" **LET ALICE GO TO THE CITY OF EMERALDS"**

The little old woman took the slate from her nose, and having read the words on it, asked, "Is your name Alice, my dear?"

"Yes," she said, looking up and drying her tears.

"Then you must go to the City of Emeralds. Perhaps Oz will help you."

"Where is this city?" asked Alice.

"It is exactly in the center of the country, and is ruled by Oz, the Great Wizard I told you of."

"Is he a good man?" inquired the Alice anxiously.

"He is a good Wizard. Whether he is a man or not, I really don't know, for I have never seen him."

"How can I get there?" asked Alice.

"You must walk. You must be brave and make sure to stay on course. It is a long journey, through a country that is sometimes pleasant and sometimes dark and terrible. However, I will use all the magic arts I know of to keep you from harm."

"Won't you go with me?" pleaded Alice, who had begun to look upon the little old woman as her only friend.

"No, I cannot do that," she replied, "but I will give you my kiss, and no one will dare injure a person who has been kissed by the Witch of the North."

She came close to Alice and kissed her gently on the forehead. Where her lips touched the girl they left a round, shining mark, as Alice found out soon after.

"The road to the City of Emeralds is paved with yellow brick," said the Witch, "so you cannot miss it. When you get to Oz do not be afraid of him, but tell your story and ask him to help you. Good-bye, my dear."

The three Munchkins bowed low to her and wished her a pleasant journey, after which they walked away through the trees. The Witch gave Alice a friendly little nod, whirled around on her left heel three times, and straightway disappeared. And Alice, knowing her to be a witch, had expected her to disappear in just that way, and was actually not surprised in the least.

 **Chapter III**

 **The Long Walk along the Yellow Brick Road**

Alice went back into the little cottage. At that moment Alice saw lying on the table the silver shoes that had belonged to the Witch of the East.

"I wonder if they will fit me," she said

"They would be just the thing to take a long walk in, for they could not wear out."

She took off her old leather shoes and tried on the silver ones, which fitted her as well as if they had been made for her. So, she set off down the road to find the Great Wizard.

There were several roads nearby, but it did not take her long to find the one paved with yellow bricks. Within a short time she was walking briskly toward the Emerald City, her silver shoes tinkling merrily on the hard, yellow road-bed. The sun shone bright and the birds sang sweetly, and Alice did not feel nearly so bad as you might think a little girl would who had been suddenly whisked away from her own country and set down in the midst of a strange land.

She was surprised, as she walked along, to see how pretty the country was about her. There were neat fences at the sides of the road, painted a dainty blue color, and beyond them were fields of grain and vegetables in abundance. Evidently the Munchkins were good farmers and able to raise large crops. Once in a while she would pass a house, and the people came out to look at her and bow low as she went by; for everyone knew she had been the means of destroying the Wicked Witch and setting them free from bondage. The houses of the Munchkins were odd-looking dwellings, for each was round, with a big dome for a roof. All were painted blue, for in this country of the East blue was the favorite color.

Toward evening, when Alice was tired with her long walk and began to wonder where she should pass the night, she came to a house rather larger than the rest. On the green lawn before it many men and women were dancing. Five little fiddlers played as loudly as possible, and the people were laughing and singing, while a big table nearby was loaded with delicious fruits and nuts, pies and cakes, and many other good things to eat.

The people greeted Alice kindly, and invited her to supper and to pass the night with them; for this was the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the land, and his friends were gathered with him to celebrate their freedom from the bondage of the Wicked Witch.

Alice ate a hearty supper and was waited upon by the rich Munchkin himself, whose name was Boq. Then she sat upon a settee and watched the people dance.

When Boq saw her silver shoes he said, "You must be a great sorceress."

"Why?" asked the girl.

"Because you wear silver shoes and have killed the Wicked Witch. Besides, you have white in your frock, and only witches and sorceresses wear white."

"My dress is blue and white checked," said Alice, smoothing out the wrinkles in it.

"It is kind of you to wear that," said Boq. "Blue is the color of the Munchkins, and white is the witch color. So we know you are a friendly witch."

Alice did not know what to say to this, for all the people seemed to think her a witch, and she knew very well she was only an ordinary little girl who had come by the chance of a rabbit hole and a cyclone into a strange land.

When she had tired watching the dancing, Boq led her into the house, where he gave her a room with a pretty bed in it. The sheets were made of blue cloth, and Alice slept soundly in them till morning.

She ate a hearty breakfast, and watched a wee Munchkin baby.

"How far is it to the Emerald City?" Alice asked.

"I do not know," answered Boq gravely, "for I have never been there. It is better for people to keep away from Oz, unless they have business with him. But it is a long way to the Emerald City, and it will take you many days. The country here is rich and pleasant, but you must pass through rough and dangerous places before you reach the end of your journey."

This worried Alice a little, but she knew that only the Great Oz could help her get back home to her world.

She bade her friends good-bye, and again started along the road of yellow brick. When she had gone several miles she thought she would stop to rest, and so climbed to the top of the fence beside the road and sat down. She noticed that there was a great table set up farther down the road. Alice became curious and decided to approach the table.

 **Chapter IV**

 **A Mad Tea-Party**

The table was set out under a tree in front of the house, and a March Hare and a Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. 'Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; "only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind."

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: "Oh…no…no…no…! 'No room! No room!" they cried out when they saw Alice coming. "Whatever do you mean..? There's plenty of room!" replied sharply, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

"Have some red vine wine," the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

Alice looked all around the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. "I don't see any vine or wine," she said.

"There isn't any," said the March Hare.

"Then why did you offer it? It wasn't very civil of you to offer what you don't have," said Alice angrily.

"Well, I don't think it very civil of you to sit down without being invited," said the March Hare.

"I didn't know it was your table," said Alice; 'it's laid for a great many more than three."

"Your hair is most atrocious and it wants cutting," said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was the first word he had spoken.

"Oh…! How uncouth….! You should learn not to make personal remarks," Alice said with some severity; 'it's very rude. In fact you are all so curious and yet rude."

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"

"Oh good, we shall have some fun now!" thought Alice. 'I'm glad they've begun asking riddles. I love guessing and I know that I can guess that,' she added aloud.

"Do tell….you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" laughed the March Hare.

"Exactly so," said Alice curtly.

"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.

"I do and at least I mean what I say and by the way, that's the same thing, you know."

"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see!"

"You might just as well say," added the March Hare, that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like!"

"You might just as well say that…. "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe!" said the dormouse although he appeared to be asleep.

"It is the same as saying….." said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped. Everyone went silent for a minute. The Hatter looked as if he were daydreaming. He looked off into the sky in a daze.

The Hatter was the first to break the silence. "What day of the month is it?" he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear, as if it didn't work.

Alice considered a little, and then said "The fourth."

"Two days wrong!" sighed the Hatter. "I told you jam and butter wouldn't suit the works!" he added looking angrily at the March Hare.

"It was the best jam and butter," the March Hare meekly replied.

"Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well," the Hatter grumbled: "you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife."

The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, 'It was the _best_ butter, you know.'

Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity. "What a curiously funny watch!" she remarked. 'It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell what time it is! I have never seen such a thing."

"And what of it? Why should it?" muttered the Hatter. "Does your watch tell you what year it is?"

"Of course not," Alice replied very readily: "but that's because it stays the same year for such a longer period of time. The hour changes with regularity."

"Which is just the case with mine," said the Hatter.

Alice felt confused. The Hatter's remarks didn't seem to have any sort of meaning to them, and yet it was certainly English. "I don't quite understand you," she said, as politely as she could.

" Quiet, the Dormouse is asleep again," said the Hatter, and he poured a little hot tea upon its nose.

The Dormouse awoke with a start and said, "Of course, of course…oh Yes… just what I was going to say myself."

"Have you guessed our little riddle yet, my curious friend?" the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.

"No, I give it up. So, what is the answer?"

"I haven't the slightest idea. I thought you knew, that's why I asked." said the Hatter.

"Nor I," smiled the Hare.

Alice sighed wearily. "I think you might do something more productive with your time,' she said, "instead of just drinking tea and asking riddles that have no answers."

"If you knew Time as well as I do," said the Hatter, "then you wouldn't talk about wasting it. It's him."

"I don't know what you mean," said Alice.

"Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. "I dare say you never even spoke to Time!"

"Perhaps not," Alice cautiously replied: "but I know I have to move to the beat time when I learn music."

"Ah! That accounts for it," said the Hatter. He just can't stand being beaten. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock."

"That would be grand, certainly," said Alice thoughtfully.

"Not at first, perhaps," said the Hatter: "but you could keep it to half-past noon or even midnight as long as you liked.'

"Is that what you do? Is that how you live and survive this curious existence ?" Alice asked.

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. "Not I!' he replied. "We quarreled last March—just before he went mad. In fact it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing

 _"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!_

 _How I wonder what you're at!"_

You know the song, perhaps?'

"I've heard something like it," said Alice.

"It goes on, you know," the Hatter continued, 'in this way:—

 _"Up above the world you fly,_

 _Like a tea-tray in the sky._

 _Twinkle, twinkle—"'_

Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began singing in its sleep ' _Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle_ —' and went on so long that they had to pinch it to make it stop.

"Well, I'd hardly finished the first verse," said the Hatter, "when the Queen jumped up and bawled out, "I can't take it….He's murdering the time! Off with his head!"'

"How dreadfully strange and savage!" exclaimed Alice.

"And now since then," the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, 'he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.'

A bright idea came into Alice's head. "Is that the reason so many tea cups and such are put out on the table?" she asked.

"Yes," said the Hatter with a sigh: "it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things in between."

"Then you keep moving round, I suppose?" said Alice.

"Exactly so," said the Hatter.

"But what happens when you come to the beginning again?" Alice ventured to ask.

"Suppose we change the subject," the Hare interrupted, yawning. "I'm getting tired of this. I vote the young lady tells us a story."

"I'm afraid I don't know one," said Alice, rather alarmed at the proposal.

"Then the Dormouse shall!" they both cried. "Wake up, Dormouse!" And they pinched it on both sides at once.

The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. 'I wasn't asleep,' he said in a hoarse, feeble voice: 'I heard every word you fellows were saying.'

"Tell us a story!" said the March Hare.

"Yes, please do!" pleaded Alice.

"And be quick about it, curious girl," added the Hatter, "or you'll be asleep again before it's done."

"Once upon a time there were three little sisters," the Dormouse began in a great hurry; "and their names were Elsie, Lelsie, and Telsie; and they lived at the bottom of a well, or was it a basket…?"

"What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking.

"They lived on tree stump, said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two.

"They couldn't have done that, you know," Alice gently remarked; 'there isn't enough room."

"So they were," said the Dormouse; "very small."

Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went on: 'But why did they live at the bottom of a well or basket…or tree stump?"

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had none yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."

"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take more than nothing."

"Nobody asked your opinion," said Alice.

"Who's making personal remarks now?" the Hatter asked in a giggle.

Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and repeated her question. "Why did they live at the bottom of a well or wherever?"

The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then said, "It was a tree stump-well."

"There's no such thing!" Alice was beginning very angrily, but the Hatter and the March Hare went 'Sh! sh!' and the Dormouse sulkily remarked, "If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the story for yourself."

"No, please go on! I am curious to know what happened." Alice said very humbly; "I won't interrupt again. I dare say there may be one."

"One, indeed!" said the Dormouse indignantly. However, he consented to go on. "And so these three little sisters—they were learning to draw, you know…"

"What did they draw?" said Alice, quite forgetting her promise.

"Tree stumps," said the Dormouse, without considering at all this time.

"I want a clean cup," interrupted the Hatter: 'let's all move one place on.'

He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather unwillingly took the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any advantage from the change: and Alice was a good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate.

Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began very cautiously: "But I don't understand. Where did they draw the tree stump from?'

"You can draw water out of a water-well,' said the Hatter; 'so I should think you could draw tree stump out of a tree stump-well—eh, stupid?'

"But they were in the well. Weren't they? I'm confused" Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to notice this last remark.

"Of course they were", said the Dormouse; "—well in."

This answer so confounded poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse go on for some time without interrupting it.

"They were learning to draw," the Dormouse went on, yawning and rubbing its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; "and they drew all manner of things—everything that begins with an M…"

"Why with an M?" said Alice.

"Why not?" said the March Hare.

Alice was silent.

The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going off into a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up again with a little shriek, and went on: "—that begins with an M, such as mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness—you know you say things are "much of a muchness"—did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?'

"Really, now you ask me," said Alice, very much confused, "I don't think I ever have."

"Then you shouldn't talk," said the Hatter.

This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in disgust, and walked away. The others didn't take notice of her going, though she looked back once or twice, half hoping that they would call after her: the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot.

"At any rate I'm leaving this place and will never have to go there again!" said Alice as she made her way back onto the road. I have got to get out of this place. I must find this Emerald City. Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a door leading right into it. 'That's very curious!' she thought. "But everything's curious these days. I think I should go in through here." And in she went. It just so happened that the tree led to another yellow brick road and in the far, far distance she could see a strange city. In the distance of this city she saw a bright green glow.

 **Chapter V**

 **The Saxon Soldiers, the Lion and the Unicorn**

Just as Alice was about to walk all the way into the tree that led to the Emerald City, soldiers came running through the wood, at first in twos and threes, then ten or twenty together, and at last in such crowds that they seemed to fill the whole forest. Alice got behind a tree, for fear of being run over, and watched them go by.

She thought that in all her life she had never seen soldiers so uncertain on their feet: they were always tripping over something or other, and whenever one went down, several more always fell over him, so that the ground was soon covered with little heaps of men.

Then came the horses. Having four feet, these managed rather better than the foot-soldiers: but even THEY stumbled now and then; and it seemed to be a regular rule that, whenever a horse stumbled the rider fell off instantly. The confusion got worse every moment, and Alice was very glad to get out of the wood into an open place, where she found the White King seated on the ground, busily writing in his memorandum-book.

"I've sent them all!' the King cried in a tone of delight, on seeing Alice. "Did you happen to meet any soldiers, my dear, as you came through the wood?'

"Yes, I did," said Alice: "several thousand, I should think."

"Four thousand two hundred and seven, that's the exact number," the King said, referring to his book. 'I couldn't send all the horses, you know, because two of them are wanted in the game. And I haven't sent the two Messengers, either. They're both gone to the town. Just look along the road, and tell me if you can see either of them."

"I see nobody on the road," said Alice.

"I only wish _I_ had such eyes," the King remarked in a fretful tone. 'To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance, too! Why, it's as much as _I_ can do to see real people, by this light!"

All this was lost on Alice, who was still looking intently along the road, shading her eyes with one hand. 'I see somebody now!' she exclaimed at last. 'But he's coming very slowly—and what curious attitudes he goes into!' (For the messenger kept skipping up and down, and wriggling like an eel, as he came along, with his great hands spread out like fans on each side.)

"Not at all,' said the King. "He's an Anglo-Saxon Messenger—and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes. He only does them when he's happy. His name is Haigha.' (He pronounced it so as to rhyme with 'mayor.')

"I love my love with an H," Alice couldn't help beginning, 'because he is Happy. I hate him with an H, because he is Hideous. I fed him with—with—with Ham-sandwiches and Hay. His name is Haigha, and he lives…"

"He lives on the Hill,' the King remarked simply, without the least idea that he was joining in the game, while Alice was still hesitating for the name of a town beginning with H. 'The other Messenger's called Hatta. I must have TWO, you know—to come and go. One to come…and one to go.'

"I beg your pardon?" said Alice.

"It isn't respectable to beg," said the King.

"I only meant that I didn't understand," said Alice. "Why one to come and one to go?"

"Didn't I tell you?' the King repeated impatiently. 'I must have Two—to fetch and carry. One to fetch…and one to carry."

At this moment the Messenger arrived: he was far too much out of breath to say a word, and could only wave his hands about, and make the most fearful faces at the poor King.

"This young lady loves you with an H," the King said, introducing Alice in the hope of turning off the Messenger's attention from himself—but it was no use—the Anglo-Saxon attitudes only got more extraordinary every moment, while the great eyes rolled wildly from side to side.

"You alarm me!" said the King. 'I feel faint—Give me a ham sandwich!"

On which the Messenger, to Alice's great amusement, opened a bag that hung round his neck, and handed a sandwich to the King, who devoured it greedily.

"Another sandwich!" said the King.

"There's nothing but hay left now," the Messenger said, peeping into the bag.

"Hay, then," the King murmured in a faint whisper.

Alice was glad to see that it revived him a good deal. 'There's nothing like eating hay when you're faint,' he remarked to her, as he munched away.

"I should think throwing cold water over you would be better,' Alice suggested: "or some sal-volatile."

"I didn't say there was nothing BETTER," the King replied. "I said there was nothing LIKE it." Which Alice did not venture to deny.

"Who did you pass on the road?" the King went on, holding out his hand to the Messenger for some more hay.

"Nobody," said the Messenger.

"Quite right," said the King: "this young lady saw him too. So of course Nobody walks slower than you."

"I do my best," the Messenger said in a sulky tone. "I'm sure nobody walks much faster than I do!"

"He can't do that," said the King, "or else he'd have been here first. However, now you've got your breath, you may tell us what's happened in the town."

"I'll whisper it," said the Messenger, putting his hands to his mouth in the shape of a trumpet, and stooping so as to get close to the King's ear. Alice was sorry for this, as she wanted to hear the news too. However, instead of whispering, he simply shouted at the top of his voice 'They're at it again!"

"Do you call THAT a whisper?' cried the poor King, jumping up and shaking himself. 'If you do such a thing again, I'll have you buttered! It went through and through my head like an earthquake!"

"It would have to be a very tiny earthquake!" thought Alice. 'Who are at it again?' she ventured to ask.

"Why the Lion and the Unicorn, of course," said the King.

"Fighting for the crown?"

"Yes, to be sure," said the King: 'and the best of the joke is, that it's MY crown all the while! Let's run and see them.' And they trotted off, Alice repeating to herself, as she ran, the words of the old song:—

 _'The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown:_

 _The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the town._

 _Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown;_

 _Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town.'_

"Does—the one—that wins—get the crown?" she asked, as well as she could, for the run was putting her quite out of breath.

"Dear me, no!" said the King. 'What an idea!'

"Would you—be good enough," Alice panted out, after running a little further, 'to stop a minute—just to get—one's breath again?'

"I'm GOOD enough," the King said, "only I'm not strong enough. You see, a minute goes by so fearfully quick. You might as well try to stop a Bandersnatch!"

Alice had no more breath for talking, so they trotted on in silence, till they came in sight of a great crowd, in the middle of which the Lion and Unicorn were fighting. They were in such a cloud of dust, that at first Alice could not make out which was which: but she soon managed to distinguish the Unicorn by his horn.

They placed themselves close to where Hatta, the other messenger, was standing watching the fight, with a cup of tea in one hand and a piece of bread-and-butter in the other.

"He's only just out of prison, and he hadn't finished his tea when he was sent in," Haigha whispered to Alice: "and they only give them oyster-shells in there—so you see he's very hungry and thirsty. How are you, dear child?" he went on, putting his arm affectionately round Hatta's neck.

Hatta looked round and nodded, and went on with his bread and butter.

"Were you happy in prison, dear child?" said Haigha.

Hatta looked round once more, and this time a tear or two trickled down his cheek: but not a word would he say.

"Speak, can't you!" Haigha cried impatiently. But Hatta only munched away, and drank some more tea.

"Speak, won't you!" cried the King. 'How are they getting on with the fight?'

Hatta made a desperate effort, and swallowed a large piece of bread-and-butter. 'They're getting on very well,' he said in a choking voice: 'each of them has been down about eighty-seven times.'

"Then I suppose they'll soon bring the white bread and the brown?" Alice ventured to remark.

"It's waiting for 'em now," said Hatta: "this is a bit of it as I'm eating."

There was a pause in the fight just then, and the Lion and the Unicorn sat down, panting, while the King called out 'Ten minutes allowed for refreshments!' Haigha and Hatta set to work at once, carrying rough trays of white and brown bread. Alice took a piece to taste, but it was VERY dry.

"I don't think they'll fight any more to-day,' the King said to Hatta: 'go and order the drums to begin.' And Hatta went bounding away like a grasshopper.

For a minute or two Alice stood silent, watching him. Suddenly she brightened up. "Look, look!" she cried, pointing eagerly. "There's the White Queen running across the country! She came flying out of the wood over yonder—How fast those Queens CAN run!"

"There's some enemy after her, no doubt,' the King said, without even looking round. "That wood's full of them."

"But aren't you going to run and help her?' Alice asked, very much surprised at his taking it so quietly.

"No use, no use!" said the King. 'She runs so fearfully quick. You might as well try to catch a Bandersnatch! But I'll make a memorandum about her, if you like—She's a dear good creature,' he repeated softly to himself, as he opened his memorandum-book. 'Do you spell "creature" with a double "e"?'

At this moment the Unicorn sauntered by them, with his hands in his pockets. 'I had the best of it this time?' he said to the King, just glancing at him as he passed.

"A little—a little," the King replied, rather nervously. "You shouldn't have run him through with your horn, you know."

"It didn't hurt him," the Unicorn said carelessly, and he was going on, when his eye happened to fall upon Alice: he turned round rather instantly, and stood for some time looking at her with an air of the deepest disgust.

"What—is—this?" he said at last.

'This is a child!" Haigha replied eagerly, coming in front of Alice to introduce her, and spreading out both his hands towards her in an Anglo-Saxon attitude. "We only found it to-day. It's as large as life, and twice as natural!"

"I always thought they were fabulous monsters!" said the Unicorn. 'Is it alive?'

"It can talk," said Haigha, solemnly.

The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said "Talk, child."

Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: "Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too! I never saw one alive before!"

"Well, now that we HAVE seen each other,' said the Unicorn, 'if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?'

"Yes, if you like," said Alice.

"Come, fetch out the plum-cake, old man!" the Unicorn went on, turning from her to the King. "None of your brown bread for me!"

"Certainly—certainly!" the King muttered, and beckoned to Haigha. 'Open the bag!' he whispered. 'Quick! Not that one—that's full of hay!'

Haigha took a large cake out of the bag, and gave it to Alice to hold, while he got out a dish and carving-knife. How they all came out of it Alice couldn't guess. It was just like a conjuring-trick, she thought.

The Lion had joined them while this was going on: he looked very tired and sleepy, and his eyes were half shut. "What's this!" he said, blinking lazily at Alice, and speaking in a deep hollow tone that sounded like the tolling of a great bell.

"Ah, what IS it, now?" the Unicorn cried eagerly. "You'll never guess! _I_ couldn't."

The Lion looked at Alice wearily. 'Are you animal—vegetable—or mineral?' he said, yawning at every other word.

"It's a fabulous monster!" the Unicorn cried out, before Alice could reply.

"Then hand round the plum-cake, Monster," the Lion said, lying down and putting his chin on this paws. 'And sit down, both of you,' (to the King and the Unicorn): 'fair play with the cake, you know!'

The King was evidently very uncomfortable at having to sit down between the two great creatures; but there was no other place for him.

"What a fight we might have for the crown, NOW!" the Unicorn said, looking slyly up at the crown, which the poor King was nearly shaking off his head, he trembled so much.

"I should win easy," said the Lion.

"I'm not so sure of that," said the Unicorn.

"Why, I beat you all round the town, you chicken!" the Lion replied angrily, half getting up as he spoke.

Here the King interrupted, to prevent the quarrel going on: he was very nervous, and his voice quite quivered. 'All round the town?' he said. "That's a good long way. Did you go by the old bridge, or the market-place? You get the best view by the old bridge."

"I'm sure I don't know,' the Lion growled out as he lay down again. 'There was too much dust to see anything. What a time the Monster is, cutting up that cake!"

Alice had seated herself on the bank of a little brook, with the great dish on her knees, and was sawing away diligently with the knife. 'It's very provoking!' she said, in reply to the Lion (she was getting quite used to being called 'the Monster'). 'I've cut several slices already, but they always join on again!'

"You don't know how to manage Looking-glass cakes, "the Unicorn remarked. "Hand it round first, and cut it afterwards."

This sounded nonsense, but Alice very obediently got up, and carried the dish round, and the cake divided itself into three pieces as she did so. 'NOW cut it up,' said the Lion, as she returned to her place with the empty dish.

"I say, this isn't fair!" cried the Unicorn, as Alice sat with the knife in her hand, very much puzzled how to begin. "The Monster has given the Lion twice as much as me!"

"She's kept none for herself, anyhow,' said the Lion. "Do you like plum-cake, Monster?"

But before Alice could answer him, the drums began.

Where the noise came from, she couldn't make out: the air seemed full of it, and it rang through and through her head till she felt quite deafened. She started to her feet and sprang across the little brook in her terror, and had just time to see the Lion and the Unicorn rise to their feet, with angry looks at being interrupted in their feast, before she dropped to her knees, and put her hands over her ears, vainly trying to shut out the dreadful uproar.

"If THAT doesn't "drum them out of town," she thought to herself, "nothing ever will!"

After a while the noise seemed gradually to die away, till all was dead silence, and Alice lifted up her head in some alarm. There was no one to be seen, and her first thought was that she must have been dreaming about the Lion and the Unicorn and those queer Anglo-Saxon Messengers. However, there was the great dish still lying at her feet, on which she had tried to cut the plum-cake, "So I wasn't dreaming, after all,' she said to herself, 'unless—unless we're all part of the same dream. Only I do hope it's MY dream, and not someone else's! I don't like belonging to another person's dream," she went on in a rather complaining tone.

Alice gained her composure and decided that it was time for her to become more focused. She realized that her curiosity had led her astray too many times. So she went back to the tree, walked through it and set out toward the yellow brick road again.

 **Chapter VI**

 **The Wonderful City of Emerald**

The road was smooth and well paved, now, and the country about was beautiful, so that the travelers rejoiced in leaving the forest far behind, and with it the many dangers they had met in its gloomy shades. Once more she could see fences built beside the road; but these were painted green, and when she came to a small house, in which a farmer evidently lived, that also was painted green. She passed by several of these houses during the afternoon, and sometimes people came to the doors and looked at her as if they would like to ask questions; but no one came near her nor spoke to her because of the Silver Slippers that she wore, of which they were very much afraid. They knew that she must have been a powerful witch to have killed the witch who had owned the slippers that she now wore. The people were all dressed in clothing of a lovely emerald-green color and wore peaked hats like those of the Munchkins.

"This must be it," said Alice, "and I am surely getting near the Emerald City."

Alice continued to make her way down the road, and soon saw a beautiful green glow in the sky just before her.

"The Emerald City….now I will find a way out of this place," said Alice.

As she walked on, the green glow became brighter and brighter, and it seemed that at last she was nearing the end of her travels. Yet it was late afternoon before she came to the great wall that surrounded the City. It was high and thick and of a bright green color.

In front of her, and at the end of the road of yellow brick, was a big gate, all studded with emeralds that glittered so in the sun that her eyes were dazzled by the brilliancy. She walked on and approached the gate. There was a bell beside the gate, and Alice pushed the button and heard a silvery tinkle sound within. Then the big gate swung slowly open, and she passed through and found herself in a high arched room, the walls of which glistened with countless emeralds.

And before her stood a little man about the same size as the Munchkins. He was clothed all in green, from his head to his feet, and even his skin was of a greenish tint. At his side was a large green box.

When he saw Alice the man asked, "What do you wish in the Emerald City?"

"I here to see the Great Oz," said Alice.

The man was so surprised at this answer that he sat down to think it over.

"It has been many years since anyone asked me to see Oz," he said, shaking his head in perplexity. "He is powerful and terrible, and if you come on an idle or foolish errand to bother the wise reflections of the Great Wizard, he might be angry and destroy you in an instant."

"But it is not a foolish errand, nor an idle one," replied Alice; "it is important. And I have been told that Oz is a good Wizard."

"So he is," said the green man, "and he rules the Emerald City wisely and well. But to those who are not honest, or who approach him from curiosity, he is most terrible, and few have ever dared ask to see his face. I am the Guardian of the Gates- the head of the Emerald City guard and since you demand to see the Great Oz I must take you to his Palace. But first you must put on the spectacles."

"Why?" asked Alice.

"Because if you did not wear spectacles the brightness and glory of the Emerald City would blind you. Even those who live in the City must wear spectacles night and day. They are all locked on, for Oz so ordered it when the City was first built, and I have the only key that will unlock them."

He opened the big box, and Alice saw that it was filled with spectacles of every size and shape. All of them had green glasses in them. The Guardian of the Gates found a pair that would just fit Alice and put them over her eyes. There were two golden bands fastened to them that passed around the back of her head, where they were locked together by a little key that was at the end of a chain the Guardian of the Gates wore around his neck. When they were on, Alice could not take them off had she wished, but of course she did not wish to be blinded by the glare of the Emerald City, so she said nothing.

Then the Guardian of the Gates put on his own glasses and told her that he was ready to show her to the Palace. Taking a big golden key from a peg on the wall, he opened another gate, and she followed him through the portal into the streets of the Emerald City.

 **Chapter VII**

 **The Wizard**

Even with eyes protected by the green spectacles, Alice was at first dazzled by the brilliancy of the wonderful City. The streets were lined with beautiful houses all built of green marble and studded everywhere with sparkling emeralds. She walked over a pavement of the same green marble, and where the blocks were joined together were rows of emeralds, set closely, and glittering in the brightness of the sun. The window panes were of green glass; even the sky above the City had a green tint, and the rays of the sun were green.

There were many people-men, women, and children-walking about, and these were all dressed in green clothes and had greenish skins. They looked at Alice with wondering eyes, and the children all ran away and hid behind their mothers when they saw Alice. Many shops stood in the street, and Alice saw that everything in them was green. Green candy and green popcorn were offered for sale, as well as green shoes, green hats, and green clothes of all sorts. At one place a man was selling green lemonade, and when the children bought it Alice could see that they paid for it with green pennies.

There seemed to be no horses, or animals of any kind; the men carried things around in little green carts, which they pushed before them. Everyone seemed happy and contented and prosperous.

The Guardian of the Gates led her through the streets until they came to a big building, exactly in the middle of the City, which was the Palace of Oz, the Great Wizard. There was a soldier before the door, dressed in a green uniform and wearing a long green beard.

"Here is the stranger," said the Guardian of the Gates to him, "and she demands to see the Great Oz."

"Step inside," answered the soldier, "and I will carry your message to him."

So she passed through the Palace Gates and was led into a big room with a green carpet and lovely green furniture set with emeralds. The soldier made her wipe her feet upon a green mat before entering this room, and when she was seated he said politely:

"Please make yourself comfortable while I go to the door of the Throne Room and tell Oz you are here." Before he walked away, he noticed her shoes and his eyes widened a bit.

She had to wait a long time before the soldier returned. When, at last, he came back, Alice asked:

"Have you seen Oz?"

"Oh, no," returned the soldier; "I have never seen him. But I spoke to him as he sat behind his screen and gave him your message. He said he will grant you an audience, if you so desire. But, as you must remain in the Palace until he is ready to see you. I will have you shown to a room where you may rest in comfort after your journey."

"Thank you," replied the Alice; "that is very kind of Oz."

The soldier now blew upon a green whistle, and at once a young girl, dressed in a pretty green silk gown, entered the room. She had lovely green hair and green eyes, and she bowed low before Alice as she said, "Follow me and I will show you your room."

Alice followed the green girl through seven passages and up three flights of stairs until they came to a room at the front of the Palace. It was the sweetest little room in the world, with a soft comfortable bed that had sheets of green silk and a green velvet counterpane. There was a tiny fountain in the middle of the room, which shot a spray of green perfume into the air, to fall back into a beautifully carved green marble basin. Beautiful green flowers stood in the windows, and there was a shelf with a row of little green books. When Alice had time to open these books she found them full of queer green pictures that made her laugh, they were so funny. "So….so very curious…"

In a wardrobe were many green dresses, made of silk and satin and velvet; and all of them fitted Alice exactly.

"Make yourself perfectly at home," said the green girl, "and if you wish for anything ring the bell. Oz will send for you tomorrow morning." She left Alice alone and shut the door.

The next morning, after breakfast, the green maiden came to fetch Alice, and she dressed her in one of the prettiest gowns, made of green brocaded satin. Alice put on a green silk apron and tied a green ribbon into her hair, and they started for the Throne Room of the Great Oz.

First she came to a great hall in which were many ladies and gentlemen of the court, all dressed in rich costumes. These people had nothing to do but talk to each other, but they always came to wait outside the Throne Room every morning, although they were never permitted to see Oz. As Alice entered they looked at her curiously, and one of them whispered:

"Are you really going to look upon the face of Oz the Terrible?"

"Of course," answered Alice, "if he will see me."

"Oh, he will see you," said the soldier who had taken her message to the Wizard, "although he does not like to have people ask to see him. Indeed, at first he was angry and said I should send you back where you came from. Then he asked me what you looked like, and when I mentioned your silver shoes he was very much interested and he decided he would admit you to his presence."

Just then a bell rang, and the green girl said to Alice, "That is the signal. You must go into the Throne Room alone."

She opened a little door and Alice walked boldly through and found herself in a wonderful place. It was a big, round room with a high arched roof, and the walls and ceiling and floor were covered with large emeralds set closely together. In the center of the roof was a great light, as bright as the sun, which made the emeralds sparkle in a wonderful manner.

But what interested Alice most was the big throne of green marble that stood in the middle of the room. It was shaped like a chair and sparkled with gems, as did everything else. In the center of the chair was an enormous Head, without a body to support it or any arms or legs whatever. There was no hair upon this head, but it had eyes and a nose and mouth, and was much bigger than the head of the biggest giant.

As Alice gazed upon this in wonder and fear, the eyes turned slowly and looked at her sharply and steadily. Then the mouth moved, and Alice heard a voice say:

"I am Oz, the Great and Terrible. Who are you, and why do you seek me?"

It was not such an awful voice as she had expected to come from the big Head; so she took courage and answered:

"I am Alice, A Girl, the Small and Meek. I have come to you for help."

The eyes looked at her thoughtfully for a full minute. Then said the voice:

"Where did you get the silver shoes?"

"I got them from the Wicked Witch of the East, when the house that I was in fell on her and killed her," she replied.

"Where did you get the mark upon your forehead?" continued the voice.

"That is where the Good Witch of the North kissed me when she bade me good-bye and sent me to you," said the girl.

Again the eyes looked at her sharply, and they saw she was telling the truth. Then Oz asked, "What do you wish me to do?"

"Send me back to Britain. I don't like your country, although it is so beautiful. And I am sure that my family will be dreadfully worried over my being away so long. I've been through so much and have seen such curious things. From a rabbit hole to a flying house and now I stand before you and bid your assistance please."

The eyes winked three times, and then they turned up to the ceiling and down to the floor and rolled around so queerly that they seemed to see every part of the room. And at last they looked at Alice again.

"Why should I do this for you?" asked Oz.

"Because you are strong and I am weak; because you are a Great Wizard and I am only a little girl."

"But you were strong enough to kill the Wicked Witch of the East," said Oz.

"That just happened," returned Alice simply; "I could not help it."

"Well," said the Head, "I will give you my answer. You have no right to expect me to send you back to Britain unless you do something for me in return. In this country everyone must pay for everything he gets. If you wish me to use my magic power to send you home again you must do something for me first. Help me and I will help you."

"What must I do?" asked the girl.

"Kill the Wicked Fairy, the Red Queen," answered Oz.

"But I cannot!" exclaimed Alice, greatly surprised.

"You killed the Witch of the East and you wear the silver shoes, which bear a powerful charm. But there are other evils left in all this land, and when you can tell me she is dead I will send you back to Britain-but not before."

Alice began to weep, she was so much disappointed; and the eyes winked again and looked upon her anxiously, as if the Great Oz felt that she could help him if she would.

"I never killed anything, willingly," she sobbed. "Even if I wanted to, how could I kill the Red Queen? If you, who are Great and Terrible, cannot kill her yourself, how do you expect me to do it?"

"I do not know," said the Head; "but that is my answer, and until the Red Queen dies you will not see your Britain or family again. Now go!"

 **Chapter VIII**

 **The Crone of the Troll Garden**

The soldier with the green whiskers led her through the streets of the Emerald City until she reached the room where the Guardian of the Gates lived. This officer unlocked her spectacles to put them back in his great box, and then he politely opened the gate for Alice.

"Which road leads to the evil Red Queen fairy?" asked Alice.

"There is no road," answered the Guardian of the Gates. "No one ever wishes to go that way."

"How, then, am I to find her?" inquired the girl.

"That will be easy," replied the man, "for she knows that you are looking for her and she will find you, and make you her slave."

"Perhaps not," said Alice, "for I mean to destroy her. I don't know how, but I must."

"Oh, that is different," said the Guardian of the Gates. "No one has ever destroyed her before, so I naturally thought she would make a slave of you, as she has of the rest. But take care; for she is wicked and fierce, and may not allow you to destroy her. Keep to the West, where the sun sets, and you cannot fail to find her…..And beware of her games."

She thanked him and bade him good-bye, and turned toward the West, walking over fields of soft grass dotted here and there with daisies and buttercups. She wondered what he met about the queen's games. She continued on thinking and wondering. Alice still wore the pretty silk dress she had put on in the palace, but now, to her surprise, she found it was no longer green, but pure white. The Emerald City was soon left far behind. As she advanced the ground became rougher and hillier, for there were no farms, nor houses in this area. Then she came to a large field of flowers and roses. They were fragrant. She saw purple flowers that she had once seen back home, it was called the rampion, also known as a rapunzel. She stooped and picked one of the flowers and continued to walk on.

Alice walked on and began to wonder if she really was a sorceress like the Munchkins thought she was. Maybe she didn't know how to control her power and that's why she ended up in this dream wonderland, this place called Oz. In the afternoon the sun shone hot in her face, for there were no trees to offer them shade. Now Alice didn't realize that she had picked a flower from the garden of the Crone of the Troll Garden. The Crone had but one eye, yet that was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat in the door of her tower, she happened to look around and saw Alice picking a flower. The Crone was angry to find her in her garden picking her rapunzel; so she blew upon a silver whistle that hung around her neck. At once there came running to her from all directions a pack short men. They had short legs and fierce eyes and sharp teeth. "Go to that girl," said the Crone, "and bring her to me." The little men ran toward Alice, but they stopped in their tracks when they saw her silver shoes. They ran away into the strange garden screeching.

The Crone eyed Alice and saw why the little men had run away. She wondered how Alice had come by the shoes. The Crone now wanted the shoes. She stomped her foot and knew that she had to try something else.

There was, in her cupboard, a Golden Cap, with a circle of diamonds and rubies running round it. This Golden Cap had a charm. Whoever owned it could call three times upon the Winged Monkeys, who would obey any order they were given. But no person could command these strange creatures more than three times. Twice already the Crone of the Troll Garden had used the charm of the Cap. Once was when she had made the little people called Duendes, Winkies and Trolls her slaves, and set herself to rule over their country. The Winged Monkeys had helped her do this. The second time was when she had fought against the Great Oz himself, and helped the Red Queen to drive him out of the land of the West. The Winged Monkeys had also helped her in doing this. Only once more could she use this Golden Cap, for which reason she did not like to do so until all her other powers were exhausted. She must punish the stranger for picking in her garden and plus now she wanted….no she needed the power silver slippers.

So the Crone took the Golden Cap from her cupboard and placed it upon her head. Then she stood upon her left foot and said slowly:

"Ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke!"

Next she stood upon her right foot and said:

"Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo!"

After this she stood upon both feet and cried in a loud voice:

"Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!"

Now the charm began to work. The sky was darkened, and a low rumbling sound was heard in the air. There was a rushing of many wings, a great chattering and laughing, and the sun came out of the dark sky to show the Crone surrounded by a crowd of monkeys, each with a pair of immense and powerful wings on his shoulders.

One, much bigger than the others, seemed to be their leader. He flew close to the Crone and said, "You have called us for the third and last time. What do you command?"

"Go to the strange girl who is within my domain and bring her to me at once"

"Your commands shall be obeyed," said the leader. Then, with a great deal of chattering and noise, the Winged Monkeys flew away to the place where Alice was walking.

But as they flew near Alice they did not harm at all. The leader of the Winged Monkeys flew up to her, his long, hairy arms stretched out and his ugly face grinning terribly; but he saw the mark of the Good Witch's kiss upon her forehead and stopped short, motioning the others not to touch her.

"We dare not harm this girl," he said to them, "for she is protected by the Power of Good, and that is greater than the Power of Evil. All we can do is to carry her to the castle of the Crone and leave her there."

So, carefully and gently, they lifted Alice in their arms and carried her swiftly through the air until they came to the castle, where they set her down upon the front doorstep. Then the leader said to the crone:

"We have obeyed you as far as we were able. Your power over our band is now ended, and you will never see us again."

Then all the Winged Monkeys, with much laughing and chattering and noise, flew into the air and were soon out of sight.

The wicked Crone of the Troll Garden was both surprised and worried when she saw the mark on Alice's forehead, for she knew well that neither the Winged Monkeys nor she, herself, dare hurt the girl in any way. She looked down at Alice's feet, and seeing the Silver Shoes, began to tremble with fear, for she knew what a powerful charm belonged to them. At first the Crone was tempted to run away from Alice; but she happened to look into the child's eyes and saw how simple the soul behind them was, and that the girl did not know of the wonderful power the Silver Shoes gave her. So the wicked Crone of the Troll Garden laughed to herself, and thought, "I can still make her my slave, for she does not know how to use her power. I will lock her up in this tower. I will seal her in and make her do my evil bidding. I can make use of whatever power that she has. I may even steal her youth" For some reason while the Crone was hatching her plan, Alice actually could hear her. But it was muffled as if Alice were dreaming it. It was if Alice could hear the Crone's thoughts. The Crone looked at the silver slippers in a dream like state and suddenly snapped out of it. She looked up and then she said to Alice, harshly and severely: "Come with me; and see that you mind everything I tell you, for if you do not I will make an end of you."

Alice followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her tower until they came to the kitchen, where the Crone bade her clean the pots and kettles and sweep the floor and keep the fire fed with wood.

Alice was afraid and went to work meekly, with her mind made up to work as hard as she could; for she was glad the Crone had decided not to kill her. But she knew that she had to find a way out and back to her quest to find the Red Queen of the Fairies.

Now the Crone had a great longing to have for her own the Silver Shoes which the girl always wore. Her bees and her crows and her wolves were lying in heaps and drying up, and she had used up all the power of the Golden Cap; but if she could only get hold of the Silver Shoes, they would give her more power than all the other things she had lost. She watched Alice carefully, to see if she ever took off her shoes, thinking she might steal them. But Alice was so proud of her pretty shoes that she never took them off except at night and when she took her bath. The Crone was too much afraid of the dark to dare go in Alice's room at night to take the shoes, and her dread of water was greater than her fear of the dark, so she never came near when Alice was bathing. Indeed, the old Crone never touched water, nor ever let water touch her in any way.

But the wicked creature was very cunning, and she finally thought of a trick that would give her what she wanted. She placed a bar of iron in the middle of the kitchen floor, and then by her magic arts made the iron invisible to human eyes. So that when Alice walked across the floor she stumbled over the bar, not being able to see it, and fell at full length. She was not much hurt, but in her fall one of the Silver Shoes came off; and before she could reach it, the Crone had snatched it away and put it on her own skinny foot.

The wicked woman was greatly pleased with the success of her trick, for as long as she had one of the shoes she owned half the power of their charm, and Alice could not use it against her, even had she known how to do so.

Alice, seeing she had lost one of her pretty shoes, grew angry, and said to the crone, "Give me back my shoe!"

"I will not," retorted the Crone of the Troll Garden, "for it is now my shoe, and not yours."

"You are a wicked creature!" cried Alice. "You have no right to take my shoe from me."

"I shall keep it, just the same," said the Crone, laughing at her, "and someday I shall get the other one from you, too."

This made Alice so very angry that she picked up the bucket of water that stood near and dashed it over the Crone, wetting her from head to foot.

Instantly the wicked woman gave a loud cry of fear, and then, as Alice looked at her in wonder, the crone began to shrink and fall away.

"See what you have done!" she screamed. "In a minute I shall melt away."

I'm very sorry, indeed," said Alice, who was truly frightened to see the crone actually melting away like brown sugar before her very eyes.

"Didn't you know water would be the end of me?" asked the old Crone, in a wailing, despairing voice.

"Of course not," answered Alice. "How should I?"

"Well, in a few minutes I shall be all melted, and you will have the tower to yourself. I have been wicked in my day, but I never thought a strange girl like you would ever be able to melt me and end my wicked deeds. Look out-here I go!"

With these words the Crone fell down in a brown, melted, shapeless mass and began to spread over the clean boards of the kitchen floor. Seeing that she had really melted away to nothing, Alice drew another bucket of water and threw it over the mess. She then swept it all out the door. After picking out the silver shoe, which was all that was left of the old woman, she cleaned and dried it with a cloth, and put it on her foot again. Then, being at last free to do as she chose, she ran out to the courtyard to announce out loud to anyone that would here that the evil old Crone of the Troll Garden had come to an end, and that they were no longer slaves. Alice ran out of the strange garden and found her way back to the road leading to the Red Queen.

 **Chapter IX**

 **The Red Queen's Game**

Alice walked on and came to a path. There was a sign made out of a scarecrow that read "Beware, You are entering the land of Fae Rouge: The Realm of The Red Queen." Alice knew that she was in the right place. By this time her confidence in her own powers had grown. She had defeated the Crone and had the silver shoes and the mark of the Good Witch upon her. Alice walked fearlessly into the realm.

A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. She also noticed that they were flying around. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, 'Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like that!"

"I couldn't help it," said Five, in a sulky tone; 'Seven jogged my elbow.'

On which Seven looked up and said, "That's right, Five! Always lay the blame on others!"

" _You'd_ better not talk!' said Five.'I heard the Queen say only yesterday you deserved to be beheaded!'

"What for?" said the one who had spoken first.

"That's none of _your_ business, Two!" said Seven.

"Yes, it _is_ his business!" said Five, "and I'll tell him—it was for bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions."

Seven flung down his brush, and had just begun "Well, of all the unjust things…" when his eye chanced to fall upon Alice, as she stood watching them, and he checked himself suddenly: the others looked round also, and all of them flew near her and landed, and bowed low.

"Would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, 'why you are painting those roses?"

Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low voice, 'Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a _red_ rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore she comes, to—' At this moment Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out 'The Queen! The Queen!' and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen.

First came ten soldiers carrying clubs; these were all shaped like the three gardeners, oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at the corners: next the ten courtiers; these were ornamented all over with diamonds, some flew and others walked two and two, as the soldiers did. After these came the royal children; there were ten of them, and the little dears came jumping merrily along hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among them Alice recognized the White Rabbit: it was talking in a hurried nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without noticing her. Now, she wondered how did the weird White Rabbit come to be here too, but he was. Then followed the Knave of Hearts, flying on a strange disk carrying the King's crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and, last of all this grand procession, came THE RED FAIRY KING AND THE RED FAIRY QUEEN OF HEARTS flying high and then they landed with ease.

Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her face like the three gardeners, but she could not remember ever having heard of such a rule at processions; and besides, what would be the use of a procession' thought she, "if people had all to lie down upon their faces, so that they couldn't see it?" So she stood still where she was, and waited.

When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked at her, and the Queen said severely "Who is this?" She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply.

"Idiot!' said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently; and, turning to Alice, she went on, "What is your name, child?"

"My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,' said Alice very politely; but she added, to herself, 'Why, they're only a pack of cards, after all. I needn't be afraid of them!'

"And who are _these_?' said the Queen, pointing to the three gardeners who were lying round the rose tree; for, you see, as they were lying on their faces, and the pattern on their backs was the same as the rest of the pack, she could not tell whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers, or three of her own children.

"How should _I_ know?' said Alice, surprised at her own courage. "It's no business of mine."

The Queen turned crimson with fury and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, screamed and waved a large staff…and said, "Off with her head! Off.."

"Nonsense!' said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent.

The King laid his hand upon her arm, and timidly said "Consider, my dear: she is only a child!"

The Queen turned angrily away from him, and said to the Knave "Turn them over!"

The Knave did so, very carefully, with one foot.

"Get up!'" said the Queen, in a shrill, loud voice, and the three gardeners instantly jumped up, and began bowing to the King, the Queen, the royal children, and everybody else.

"'Leave off that!" screamed the Queen. "You make me giddy." And then, turning to the rose-tree, she went on, 'What _have_ you been doing here?'

"May it please your Majesty," said Two, in a very humble tone, going down on one knee as he spoke, "we were trying…"

" _I_ see!" said the Queen, who had meanwhile been examining the roses. 'Off with their heads!'…or better yet…turn them into playing cards!" And the procession moved on, three of the soldiers remaining behind to wave a small wand and turn the unfortunate gardeners into cards. They tried to run to Alice for protection, but it was too late.

The queen looked around and said, "Can you play croquet?"

The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice, as the question was evidently meant for her.

"Yes!" shouted Alice. This was Alice's chance. She would defeat the queen and grab her staff as proof for the wizard.

"Come on, then!'" roared the Queen, and Alice joined the procession, wondering very much what would happen next.

"It's—it's a very fine day!" said a timid voice at her side. She was walking by the White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously into her face.

"Very," said Alice. Then she said…"Don't worry it will all be over soon."

"Hush! Hush!" said the Rabbit in a low, hurried tone.

"What for?" said Alice.

"Did you say something?" asked the Rabbit.

"'No, I didn't," said Alice.

Alice gave a little scream of laughter. "Oh, hush!" the Rabbit whispered in a frightened tone. "The Queen will hear you! She will turn you into a dragon or a card or worse… she will have your head!"

"Get to your places!" shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and fairies and other beings began flying and running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.

The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting 'Off with his head!' or 'Off with her head!' about once in a minute.

Alice began to feel very uneasy: to be sure, she had not as yet had any dispute with the Queen, but she knew that it might happen any minute, and then, she wondered 'what would become of me? They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here; the great wonder is, that there's any one left alive!"

She was looking about for some way get the queen alone and maybe steal her staff away without having to hard the weird queen in the process. Alice chance came. She saw the queen floating about. Alice began talking loudly to get the queens attention.

The Queen smiled and passed on.

"Who _are_ you talking to?" asked the Queen, floating up near to Alice, and looking around with great curiosity.

"It's a friend of mine—a Cheshire Cat," said Alice: "allow me to introduce it."

"I don't see any cat: "however, it may kiss my hand if it likes."

"It said that it rather not," said Alice.

"Don't be impertinent," said the Queen, "and don't look at me like that!" I am the Red Queen of the Fairies and it must kiss my ring whether it is a visible being or not. I am the Queen and won't be disobeyed or else I will have you beheaded!" The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said, without even looking round.

Thus, Alice continued with the charade unsure of how it would turn out. "The cat says that if you wish he shall bow before you." The queen was about to whack the imaginary cat upon the head as he bowed and as she stretched out her staff, Alice grabbed for it. They fought over the staff. The fairy queen wondered how a mere girl could be so strong, especially against her a full-fledged fairy queen. Alice could think of nothing else, so she yelled out, "Red Queen you are a tyrant and I am here to stop all of these horrid executions." The queen looked at Alice and said, "I am a powerful fairy and I will take off your head myself or maybe I will make you a slave in a never ending chess game…. You will be one of my greatest pawns!"

As Alice was grabbing the queen began to scream, but as Alice was pulling with all of her strength, the heels of her shoes touched and sparked and the queen fell back and let go of the staff. The royal court of fairies and other oddities came running to where the queen lay. They looked at Alice and said, "You killed our queen." Alice walked backward to avoid the crowd. She hoped that they were not going to cut off her head for the deed. But instead, they bowed and then rejoiced. The king stepped forward and said, "I am free. I was a prince and the evil Red Queen enslaved me and made me her husband and made all of us play this cruel and wicked game. Now it is over. We can live our lives. Keep the staff. You have earned it."

Alice took the staff and ran as fast as she could. All she could think of was getting the staff to the wizard to prove that she had defeated the queen. Suddenly, she was lifted into the air. She knew that it was the power of the Red Queens staff. She flew high and then slightly lower as the Emerald City came into view.

 **Chapter X**

 **The Return**

Alice landed and walked up to the great gate of Emerald City and rang the bell. After ringing several times, it was opened by the same Guardian of the Gates they had met before.

"What! Are you back again?" he asked, in surprise.

"Do you not see me?" answered Alice sarcastically.

"But I thought you had gone to visit the Red Queen."

"I did visit her," said Alice.

"And she let you go?" asked the man, in wonder.

"She could not help it, for she is no more," explained Alice.

"No more…You mean dead. Well, that is good news, indeed," said the man. "Who killed her?"

"I did…and also the Crone of the Troll Garden," said the Alice gravely.

"Good gracious!" exclaimed the man, and he bowed very low indeed before her.

Then he led them into his little room and locked the spectacles from the great box on her eyes, just as he had done before. Afterward she passed on through the gate into the Emerald City. When the people heard from the Guardian of the Gates that Alice had melted the Crone of the Troll Garden and defeated the Red Queen, they all gathered around her and followed her in a great crowd to the Palace of Oz.

The soldier with the green whiskers was still on guard before the door, but he let her in at once, and she was again met by the beautiful green girl, who showed her to her old rooms at once, so she might rest until the Great Oz was ready to receive her.

The soldier had the news carried straight to Oz that Alice had come back again, after destroying the Red Queen and the Crone of the Troll Garden; but Oz made no reply. She thought the Great Wizard would send for her at once, but he did not. She had no word from him the next day, nor the next, nor the next. The waiting was tiresome and wearing, and at last she grew vexed that Oz should treat her in so poor a fashion, after sending her to undergo hardships and slavery.

So the Alice at last asked the green girl to take another message to Oz, saying if he did not let her in to see him at once, she would call the Winged Monkeys to help her and find out whether he kept his promises or not. She told the girl to tell the Wizard that the monkeys were her friends. When the Wizard was given this message he was so frightened that he sent word for her to come to the Throne Room at four minutes after nine o'clock the next morning. He had once met the Winged Monkeys in the Land of the West, and he did not wish to meet them again.

Promptly at nine o'clock the next morning the green-whiskered soldier came to her, and four minutes later she went into the Throne Room of the Great Oz.

Of course she expected to see the Wizard in the shape he had taken before, and was greatly surprised when she looked about and saw no one at all in the room. She kept close to the door, for the stillness of the empty room was more dreadful than any of the forms that she had seen Oz take.

Presently she heard a solemn Voice, which seemed to come from somewhere, near the top of the great dome, and it said:

"I am Oz, the Great and Terrible. Why do you seek me?"

She looked again in every part of the room, and then, seeing no one, Alice asked, "Where are you?"

"I am everywhere," answered the Voice, "but to the eyes of common mortals I am invisible. I will now seat myself upon my throne that you may converse with me." Indeed, the Voice seemed just then to come straight from the throne itself; so she walked toward it and stood in a row while Alice said:

"I have come to claim my promise, Great Oz."

"What promise?" asked Oz.

"You promised to send me back to Britain when the Red Queen was destroyed. I have done more than that. I have also destroyed the Crone of the Troll Garden," said Alice.

"Is the Crone really destroyed?" asked the Voice, and Alice thought it trembled a little.

"Yes," she answered, "I melted her with a bucket of water. And the Red Queen I destroyed by overpowering her, when I took away her staff."

"Dear me," said the Voice, "how sudden! Well, come to me tomorrow, for I must have time to think it over.""

"You've had plenty of time already," said Alice.

"I shan't wait a day longer," yelled. "You must keep your promise!" exclaimed Alice even louder. And for some reason a screen in the corner began to tremble so fiercely that it tipped over. As it fell with a crash Alice looked that way, and the next moment she was filled with wonder. For she saw, standing in just the spot the screen had hidden, a little old man, with a bald head and a wrinkled face, who seemed to be as much surprised as she was.

"Who are you?" asked Alice

"I am Oz, the Great and Terrible," said the little man, in a trembling British accented voice. "But don't strike me, please don't-and I'll do anything you want me to….Great and powerful Alice."

"I thought Oz was a great Head, or a Ball of Fire," exclaimed Alice.

"No, you wrong," said the little man meekly. "I have been making believe."

"Making believe!" cried Alice. "Are you not a Great Wizard?"

"Hush, my dear," he said. "Don't speak so loud, or you will be overheard-and I should be ruined. I'm supposed to be a Great Wizard."

"And aren't you?" she asked.

"Not a bit of it, my dear; I'm just a common man."

"You're more than that," said the Alice, in a grieved tone; "you're a humbug…a fake."

"Exactly so!" declared the little man, rubbing his hands together as if it pleased him. "I am a humbug."

"Doesn't anyone else know you're a humbug?" asked Alice.

"No one knows it but you -and myself," replied Oz. "I have fooled everyone so long that I thought I should never be found out. It was a great mistake my ever letting you into the Throne Room. Usually I will not see even my subjects, and so they believe I am something terrible."

"But, I don't understand," said Alice, in bewilderment. "How was it that you appeared to me as a great Head?"

"That was one of my tricks," answered Oz. "Step this way, please, and I will tell you all about it."

He led the way to a small chamber in the rear of the Throne Room, and Alice followed him. He pointed to one corner, in which lay the great Head, made out of many thicknesses of paper, and with a carefully painted face.

"This I hung from the ceiling by a wire," said Oz. "I stood behind the screen and pulled a thread, to make the eyes move and the mouth open."

"But how about the voice?" she inquired.

"Oh, I am a ventriloquist," said the little man. "I can throw the sound of my voice wherever I wish, so that you thought it was coming out of the Head. Here are the other things I used to deceive you." As for the Ball of Fire, the false Wizard had hung that also from the ceiling. It was really a ball of cotton, but when oil was poured upon it the ball burned fiercely.

"Really," said the Alice, "you ought to be ashamed of yourself for being such a humbug."

"I am-I certainly am," answered the little man sorrowfully; "but it was the only thing I could do. Sit down, please; and I will tell you my story."

So she sat down and listened while he told the following tale.

"I was born in London—"

"Why, that isn't very far from where I am from!" cried Alice.

"No, but it's farther from here," he said, shaking his head at her sadly. "When I grew up I became a ventriloquist, and at that I was very well trained by a great master. I can imitate any kind of a bird or beast." "After a time," continued Oz, "I tired of that, and became a balloonist."

"What is that?" asked Alice.

"A man who goes up in a balloon on circus day, so as to draw a crowd of people together and get them to pay to see the circus," he explained.

"Oh," she said, "I know."

"Well, one day I went up in a balloon and the ropes got twisted, so that I couldn't come down again. It went way up above the clouds, so far that a current of air struck it and carried it many, many miles away. For a day and a night I traveled through the air, and on the morning of the second day I awoke and found the balloon floating over a strange and beautiful country."

"It came down gradually, and I was not hurt a bit. But I found myself in the midst of a strange people, who, seeing me come from the clouds, thought I was a great Wizard. Of course I let them think so, because they were afraid of me, and promised to do anything I wished them to. Just to amuse myself, and keep the good people busy, I ordered them to build this City, and my Palace; and they did it all willingly and well. Then I thought, as the country was so green and beautiful, I would call it the Emerald City; and to make the name fit better I put green spectacles on all the people, so that everything they saw was green."

"But isn't everything here green?" asked Alice.

"No more than in any other city," replied Oz; "but when you wear green spectacles, why of course everything you see looks green to you. The Emerald City was built a great many years ago, for I was a young man when the balloon brought me here, and I am a very old man now. But my people have worn green glasses on their eyes so long that most of them think it really is an Emerald City, and it certainly is a beautiful place, abounding in jewels and precious metals, and every good thing that is needed to make one happy. I have been good to the people, and they like me; but ever since this Palace was built, I have shut myself up and would not see any of them.

"One of my greatest fears was the Witches, the Fairies, the Crone and the Red Queen, for while I had no magical powers at all, I soon found out that the Witches and fairies were really able to do wonderful things. There were many of them in this country, and they ruled the people who live in the North and South and East and West. Fortunately, the Witches of the North and South were good, and I knew they would do me no harm; but the Witches and Fairies of the East and West, such as the Red Queen were terribly wicked, and had they not thought I was more powerful than they themselves, they would surely have destroyed me. As it was, I lived in deadly fear of them for many years; so you can imagine how pleased I was when I heard your house had fallen on the Wicked Witch of the East. When you came to me, I was willing to promise anything if you would only do away with the other evils; but, now that you have destroyed both, I am ashamed to say that I cannot keep my promises."

"I think you are a very bad man," said Alice.

"Oh, no, my dear; I'm really a very good man, but I'm a very bad Wizard, I must admit."

"And now," said Alice, "how am I to get back to Britain?"

"We shall have to think about that," replied the little man. "Give me two or three days to consider the matter and I'll try to find a way to carry you over the desert. In the meantime you shall be treated as my guest, and while you live in the Palace my people will wait upon you and obey your slightest wish. There is only one thing I ask in return for my help-such as it is. You must keep my secret and tell no one I am a humbug."

 **Chapter XI**

 **The Balloon**

For three days Alice heard nothing from Oz. These were sad days for poor Alice. On the fourth day, to her great joy, Oz sent for her, and when she entered the Throne Room he greeted her pleasantly: "Sit down, my dear; I think I have found the way to get you out of this country."

"And back to Britain?" she asked eagerly.

"Well, I'm not sure about Britain," said Oz, "for I haven't the faintest notion which way it lies. But the first thing to do is to cross the Oz desert, and then it should be easy to find your way home."

"How can I cross the desert?" she inquired.

"Well, I'll tell you what I think," said the little man. "You see, when I came to this country it was in a balloon. You also came through the air, being carried by a cyclone or some type of wind. So I believe the best way to get across the desert will be through the air. Now, it is quite beyond my powers to make a cyclone; but I've been thinking the matter over, and I believe I can make a balloon."

"How?" asked Alice.

"A balloon," said Oz… "is made of silk, which is coated with glue to keep the gas in it. I have plenty of silk in the Palace, so it will be no trouble to make the balloon. But in all this country there is no gas to fill the balloon with, to make it float."

"If it won't float," remarked Alice, "it will be of no use to us."

"True," answered Oz. "But there is another way to make it float, which is to fill it with hot air. Hot air isn't as good as gas, for if the air should get cold the balloon would come down in the desert, and we should be lost."

"We!" exclaimed the girl. "Are you going with me?"

"Yes, of course," replied Oz. "I am tired of being such a humbug. If I should go out of this Palace my people would soon discover I am not a Wizard, and then they would be vexed with me for having deceived them. So I have to stay shut up in these rooms all day, and it gets tiresome. I'd much rather go back to Britain with you and be in a circus again."

"I shall be glad to have your company. I have been all alone on this strange journey" said Alice.

"Thank you," he answered. "Now, if you will help me sew the silk together, we will begin to work on our balloon.""

So Alice took a needle and thread, and as fast as Oz cut the strips of silk into proper shape, Alice sewed them neatly together. First there was a strip of light green silk, then a strip of dark green and then a strip of emerald green; for Oz had a fancy to make the balloon in different shades of the color about them. It took three days to sew all the strips together, but when it was finished they had a big bag of green silk more than twenty feet long.

Then Oz painted it on the inside with a coat of thin glue, to make it airtight, after which he announced that the balloon was ready.

"But we must have a basket to ride in," he said. So he sent the soldier with the green whiskers for a big clothes basket, which he fastened with many ropes to the bottom of the balloon.

When it was all ready, Oz sent word to his people that he was going to make a visit to a great brother Wizard who lived in the clouds. The news spread rapidly throughout the city and everyone came to see the wonderful sight.

Oz ordered the balloon carried out in front of the Palace, and the people gazed upon it with much curiosity. Oz held the bottom of the balloon over the fire so that the hot air that arose from it would be caught in the silken bag. Gradually the balloon swelled out and rose into the air, until finally the basket just touched the ground.

Then Oz got into the basket and said to all the people in a loud voice:

"I am now going away to make a visit. While I am gone the head of the Emerald City Guards will rule over you. I command you to obey him as you would me."

The balloon was by this time tugging hard at the rope that held it to the ground, for the air within it was hot, and this made it so much lighter in weight than the air without that it pulled hard to rise into the sky.

"Come, Alice!" cried the Wizard. "Hurry up, or the balloon will fly away." Alice jumped into the basket and the balloon whirled away up into the sky as the citizens of the Emerald City waved. "Good-bye!" shouted everyone, and all eyes were turned upward to where the Wizard and Alice were riding in the basket, rising every moment farther and farther into the sky. As the basket climbed into the sky Alice noticed that her shoes were no longer silver. But she still had the Red Queen's staff. She remembered how the staff had flown her back to the "wizard" and thought hard about being back at home. She had hoped that the staff would work again. She began to mumble to herself. The wizard looked at her in awe and asked, "What are you doing my child?" Alice opened her eyes and said, "I am finding us a way to be exactly where we want to be. I used this staff to fly to the Emerald City and before it disappears as the silver slippers did, I am going to try and use it to our benefit." She closed her eyes and the words came to her as if by magic, and she said, "Home…there is no place better than home…to the shores of Great Britain…home...home.…home."

The balloon began to pick up speed and they flew into a blue cloud and then the balloon began to fall. The staff was gone and they were falling. The wizard let out a yelp and the balloon began to float lightly and then landed somewhere. They stepped out of the balloon and began to walk around to see if there was anyone around. They came upon a man and asked where they were. He said, "Well…you be in her majesty's kingdom…of course…yes indeed."

"Which majesty is that?" asked Alice in a shaky voice.

"Her Royal Majesty of Great Britain of course."

Alice and the wizard were relieved they were home. Alice thanked the wizard and ran and asked the man how to get back to the little river-bank near her home. She was surely that they had missed her terribly, since she had been away for so long.

When she found the bank she was that her sister was still there reading her book and dozing off. It looked as it did when she had chased the strange white rabbit. It was as if time had stood still. Alice sat down on the edge of the bank and decided to take a nap. Before she lay down she saw another strange rabbit, this time a brown one, beckon her. She ignored the rabbit this time and decided not to allow her curiosity and boredom to get the best of her again. She hoped.

THE END


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